Originally published March 1, 2013
On Friday, February 24, Shepard Fairey pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge of criminal contempt for destroying and altering documents in his civil lawsuit against The Associated Press. Fairey filed a declaratory action against the AP in 2009, seeking an order declaring that he did not infringe the AP's copyright in a photograph of Barack Obama when he created his artwork "HOPE," which was reproduced on numerous stickers, posters, and other media during President Obama's campaign for the 2008 election. The AP filed a counterclaim for copyright infringement.
Prior to the litigation, Fairey destroyed documents showing that he based his poster on the AP photograph and doctoring evidence to make it appear that he based his poster on a cropped photograph of then-senator Obama with George Clooney at a public event instead. The "deleted" documents were found when searching for discovery in the civil litigation. The civil lawsuit was settled last year. Fairey now faces up to six months in prison.
Fairey's "HOPE" is currently on display in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.
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