Crowdsourcing Internet, Law and Democracy
This was my comment to the blog for my law class:
Prof. Lessig, from Stanford and soon-to-be Harvard Law, is asking for help in the Shepard Fairey case from the general public.
The Fair Use Project at the Center for Internet and Society is representing artist Shepard Fairey, the artist who made the made the incredibly famous HOPE poster for the Obama campaign. This is a neat case to begin with and I would love to discuss it with some of you law-types*. But from an Internet, Law and Democracy standpoint, the case is getting more interesting. Over the last couple hours, Lawrence Lessig, though multiple Internet communication channels (e.g., his blog and Twitter), has asked the general public to help him with the case. From his blog:
“As mentioned, the Fair Use Project at Stanford’s CIS is representing Shepard Fairey in his suit against the AP. To that end, we’d be grateful for some net-based knowledge. How many photos are there “like” the beautiful photograph that Mannie Garcia took (the one on the left; the one on the right is a CC licensed photo taken by Steve Jurvetson)? Can you send any examples to shep_use@pobox.com?
Also, please send any favorite examples of photos used as visual references for other works of art. We lawyers don’t know much, but we can learn pretty quickly.Thanks for any help.”
Is this good, bad, indifferent? I am not really sure, but I know it is easier to find things when a million people are looking for it.
*All my knowledge of copyright comes from Lessig’s books, so I am sure you can guess my opinion. I would love to hear the other side. But beyond my person views, I wonder and would love to get this answered, if Shepard Fairey goes to court and eventually gets found guilty of copyright infringement, wouldn’t “Obama for America” also be guilty of copyright infringement, because they sold the posters? Just wondering.