The Associated Press says it wants credit and compensation for use of a copyright-protected photo in the creation of Shepard Fairey's widely imitated "Hope" campaign poster for Barack Obama.
"The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission," said Paul Colford, AP's director of media relations, in a statement Wednesday.
Fairey's lawyer said the artist's use of the image is covered by fair use, and refused to comment further on the matter. Fairey reportedly found the image through an image search on Google.
AP says the photo was taken April 2006 by Manny Garcia, who was on assignment for the wire service, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The source of the influential Obama image has been the subject of some mystery, with bloggers attempting to track down the original and floating potential matches.
Visual search company Idee used image-recognition software to confirm AP photog Garcia as the shooter.
Fairey's image has had an undeniable cultural impact. His red-white-and-blue poster of Obama with the word "Hope" at the bottom (pictured) has spurred an ongoing parade of parody images showing everyone from Sarah Palin ("Nope") to Heath Ledger ("Joke").
Paste magazine's easy-to-use, web-based Obamicon generator -- one of many online tools that make it easy to modify an picture to look like Fairey's poster -- has reportedly created more than 500,000 of the images.
"I'm thrilled that my image has become an unofficial image for the campaign," Fairey told Wired.com in the heat of last year's presidential contest. "It's awesome."
Image courtesy Shepard Fairey/Obey Giant
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