Shepard Fairey avoided jail time for his criminal contempt conviction arising from evidence tampering in his previous civil lawsuit against the Associated Press. Fairey, who pled guilty to the contempt charges in February of this year, was sentenced to two years probation, community service and a $25,000 fine. The charges arose from his destruction and alteration of electronic data evidencing his use of an AP photograph of President (then Candidate) Barak Obama as the basis for the famous "Hope" poster, which became an emblem of the campaign.
In a statement published on the Huffington Post today, Fairey expressed remorse for his actions, as well as regret that his misconduct detracted from the important issues of fair use and creative freedom, which he had hoped to highlight in his lawsuit.
This article first appeared in Entertainment Law Matters, a Frankfurt Kurnit legal blog.
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