Shepard Fairey’s Piracy: Rank Hypocrisy in the Art Community

Ever wonder why ushers on Broadway become “Camera Nazis” whenever they spot a still camera or video camera in the house?

Ever wonder why you can’t just skip over those FBI warnings at the start of every DVD?

Ever wonder why “piracy” is always such a big issue for Hollywood when discussing our economic relationship with China?

It’s because writers, actors, directors and producers all live and die from royalties and residuals (payments for the repeated use of a copyright protected piece of intellectual property).  I know most people don’t want to hear this, but being a writer, director or actor is usually not a great life.  Until (or unless) you are lucky enough to make it big, it is fiscally challenging to say the least.  So many actors who are not stars are lucky if they get one or two weeks’ worth of work in Hollywood per year.  How does an actor survive on only two weeks’ pay?  They don’t.  But, one thing that helps them is they get paid for every subsequent use of the show they were on.  Same with the writer and the other creative folks working on the show. (more…)

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Tags: "Fair Use" AP, hollywood, hope, Shepard Fairey
Posted Oct 21st 2009 at 1:57 pm in Art, Celebrity News, Featured Story, Politics | 24992244 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/10/21/shepard-faireys-piracy-rank-hypocrisy-in-the-art-community/Shepard+Fairey%E2%80%99s+Piracy%3A+Rank+Hypocrisy+in+the+Art+Community2009-10-21+20%3A57%3A10Stage+Right

ARTISTLIARTHIEF: Obama Artist Shepard Fairey Admits to Wrongdoing in Associated Press Lawsuit

L.A. Times just dropped this blockbuster:

In a strange twist to an already complicated legal situation, artist Shepard Fairey admitted today to legal wrongdoing in his ongoing battle with the Associated Press.

Fairey said in a statement issued late Friday that he knowingly submitted false images and deleted others in the legal proceedings, in an attempt to conceal the fact that the AP had correctly identified the photo that Fairey had used as a reference for his “Hope” poster of then-Sen. Barack Obama.

“Throughout the case, there has been a question as to which Mannie Garcia photo I used as a reference to design the HOPE image,” Fairey said. “The AP claimed it was one photo, and I claimed it was another.”

New filings to the court, he said, “state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used…and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong. In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images.” (more…)

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Tags: associated press, Barack Obama, Mannie Garcia, Obama Hope Poster, Shepard Fairey
Posted Oct 16th 2009 at 8:42 pm in Art, Culture, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 24860699 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/10/16/artistliarthief-obama-artist-shepard-fairey-admits-to-wrongdoing-in-associated-press-lawsuit/ARTISTLIARTHIEF%3A+Obama+Artist+Shepard+Fairey+Admits+to+Wrongdoing+in+Associated+Press+Lawsuit2009-10-17+03%3A42%3A55Big+Hollywood

Radical: Who is Yosi Sergant, Why Did the NEA ‘Reassign’ Him?

Other than the National Endowment for the Arts’ already tenuous reputation, the only casualty in the NEA conference call episode has been Yosi Sergant, the former Director of Communications for the public agency charged with funding arts organizations in America.

On September 10, the NEA announced that Sergant would be re-assigned with this curious statement accompanying the move:

“On August tenth, the National Endowment for the Arts participated in a call with arts organizations to inform them of the president’s call to national service. The White House office of public engagement also participated in the call, which provided information on how the Corporation for National and Community Service can assist groups interested in sponsoring service projects or having their members volunteer on other projects. This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false. The NEA regularly does outreach to various organizations to inform of the work we are doing and the resources available to them.”

This statement leads any objective and reasonable observer to wonder why Mr. Sergant would be “re-assigned” if there was nothing wrong with this purely “information/outreach” conference call. As has often been the case with this, the most open and transparent administration in history, it is very difficult to get a straight answer. We can’t even learn WHAT Sergant’s new position is, let alone why he was asked to step down from his role as Communications Director. (more…)

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Tags: manifest hope, national endowment for the arts, nea, Shepard Fairey, Spike Lee
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 at 5:03 am in Art, Featured Story, Politics | 23059451 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/09/22/radical-who-is-yosi-sergant-why-did-the-nea-reassign-him/Radical%3A+Who+is+Yosi+Sergant%2C+Why+Did+the+NEA+%27Reassign%27+Him%3F2009-09-22+12%3A03%3A29Stage+Right

The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?

I recently wrote a critique of the art community’s lack of dissent in the face of many controversial decisions made by the current administration. Entitled “The Artist Formerly Known as Dissident,” one of the key points argued in the article was the potential danger associated with the use of the art community as a tool of the state. Little did I know how quickly this concern would be elevated to an outright probability. 

Sometime between when I finished the critique and when it went live online, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to take part in a conference call that invited a group of rising artist and art community luminaries “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda – health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”  (more…)

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Tags: "The Artist Formerly Known as Dissident", 'Health Care Reform, Buffy Wicks, Cap and Trade, Lyndon B. Johnson
Posted Aug 25th 2009 at 12:44 pm in Art, Culture, Featured Story, Politics | 209182603 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pcourrielche/2009/08/25/the-national-endowment-for-the-art-of-persuasion-patrick-courrielche/The+National+Endowment+for+the+Art+of+Persuasion%3F2009-08-25+19%3A44%3A51Patrick+Courrielche

Obama Joker Artist Unmasked: A Kucinich Supporter

The L.A. Times reports details on the Obama Joker poster artist. Read the whole article here.  Here are some highlights:

-Was it an ultra-conservative grassroots group or a disgruntled street artist going against the grain?

Nope, it turns out, just a 20-year-old college student from Chicago.

Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe’s Photoshop software.

-A still-anonymous rogue famously found his image, digitally removed the references to Time Magazine, captioned the picture with the word “socialism” and hung printed copies around L.A., making headlines.

(more…)

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Tags: bush, Bush vampire, Dennis Kucinich, Firas Alkhateeb, Obama
Posted Aug 17th 2009 at 10:19 pm in Art, Culture, News, Politics | 207022144 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/08/17/obama-joker-artist-unmasked-a-kucinich-supporter/Obama+Joker+Artist+Unmasked%3A+A+Kucinich+Supporter2009-08-18+05%3A19%3A43Big+Hollywood

Daily Gut: Joker Poster Boosts Obama’s Coolness

So posters of President Obama made up as Heath Ledger’s Joker with ‘Socialism’ written below it have been showing up around L.A – and it’s being greeted with the usual outrage you’d expect from people who get outraged. Some are calling it racist, others are calling it “mean spirited and dangerous,” while I call it boring, boring, and oh yeah: boring.

The website Newsbusters points out the silliness behind the outrage – after all, President Bush has been depicted as far worse – he’s been portrayed as everything from a bloodsucking vampire in the Village Voice, to the Joker in Vanity Fair, to God forbid, a Republican- everywhere else. No one seemed to mind then. And while people like Bill Maher point out that Obama has been only at this job for six months (whereas Bush earned the bile over eight years) and therefore any criticism is unfair – that’s pure batpoop. Hatred for Bu$hitler began the moment he took office, and the vile lefties only knew Sarah Palin for a few weeks before they were wearing t-shirts with her face and a vulgar word (begins with ‘C’ and rhymes with bunt) beneath it. (more…)

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Tags: anti-heroes, batman, Bill Maher, Bu$hitler, Christian Bale
Posted Aug 4th 2009 at 3:41 pm in Daily Gut, Featured Story, News, Politics | 199626151 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/08/04/daily-gut-joker-poster-elevates-obama%e2%80%99s-hip-persona/Daily+Gut%3A+Joker+Poster+Boosts+Obama%27s+Coolness++2009-08-04+22%3A41%3A58Greg+Gutfeld

The Con Artists Have Taken Over the Asylum

This week’s Washington Times column:

Can we all agree that the “hope, “change” and “transparency” part of the Barack Obama media carnival is officially over, and it’s finally time that we start holding our new president accountable?

Consider the tale of the ubiquitous “Hope” poster that helped get Mr. Obama worshiped, inoculated and elected — and the anti-capitalist street artist who “created” it.

Shepard Fairey last week was sued for copyright infringement by the Associated Press, which claims he stole photographer Manny Garcia’s work and made it the basis of the iconic off-red, white and blue posters whose signed editions are being sold on eBay for thousands of dollars.

If found guilty — a liberal application of “fair use” law could protect Mr. Fairey — we have a case of the white man stealing from an ethnic minority in order to turn a quick profit. (I thought an Obama presidency would automatically end such practices.)

(more…)

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Tags: associated press, Barack Obama, Communist artists, eBay, Hope poster
Posted Feb 8th 2009 at 5:49 pm in Featured Story, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 45678141 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/02/08/the-con-artists-have-taken-over-the-asylum/The+Con+Artists+Have+Taken+Over+the+Asylum2009-02-09+01%3A49%3A39Andrew+Breitbart