Boston Sentences Fairey
Associated Press who are in the midst of legal wranglings with Shepard Fairey over the use of Manny Garcia’s photo of the President as a basis of the famous “Hope” image that the artist created was one of the few media outlets that reported on Fairey’s day in court on Friday. Fairey had been arrested in February on the way to DJ an event at the ICA linked to his show there.
Shepard Fairey who pleaded guilty to three vandalism charges was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $2000 for graffiti to be removed. He is also not allowed to have tagging materials such as posters, stickers, paste, paint etc in Boston unless he has an authorized art installation and he has to let authorities know whenever he is in Suffolk County MA. 11 other charges however were dropped due to insufficient proof.
He looked quite miserable in his funereal white shirt, black suit and tie but with some bravado outside the courts afterwards said “Fortunately, I’m at a place in my career where I can get sanctioned spaces, so it’s not an issue that I’ll ever have to worry about again.”
Fairey says he has been arrested 14 times over various issues. He is known for using other artists work without giving credit, yet has threatened to sue other artists for doing the same with his work. AP has said his uncredited and uncompensated use of the image violates copyright laws. Fairey on the other hand says he didn’t violate copyright law because he dramatically changed the image.
We’ll have to wait for the next installation on this story……
July 12th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Arrested 14 times over various issues. Why this guy is a menace to society, I am sure these various issue’s consist of the heinous crimes of jay walking, spitting on the sidewalk, drinking beer on the street that is not in a paper bag, and not putting his recyclable garbage in the proper containers and not using a pooper scooper when out walking his dog. Why the F.B.I lets this guy walk around is beyond my comprehension. You’re looking at a real hard assed gangster in the making. I am guessing the dark suit intent was that if the judge did anything but give him a slap on the wrist. No one would see him piss is pants. All in all another sad commentary on the development of today’s mumbo jumbo art world.