Shepard Fairey suing AP over copyright allegations

Obama poster artist Shepard Fairey apparently doesn’t like allegations from AP that he breached their copyright with his iconic poster, so he’s suing them.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan says that Fairey did not violate the copyright of the April 2006 AP photograph used as the base for the poster, because he dramatically changed the nature of the image.

Lawyers for Fairey said he transformed the literal depiction into a “stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that creates powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message.”

AP said in a statement that it was “disappointed by the surprise filing.”

Notably, AP had not yet sued Fairey over the copyright issue, and had instead been in talks with Fairey’s lawyers.

The Huffington Post has more.