Obama ‘Hope’ Portrait Artist Under Fire

Here is a link to an interesting article form Wired magazine.

(Obama Hope Artist in Copyright Flap)

I have to say, I side with the Associated Press. Judging from their original photo, I think Fairey was quite careless to claim the ‘vectored’ version as solely his own. Any designer knows how easy it is to use the ‘Live Trace’ feature in Illustrator, and it’s also just as easy to retouch the traced image and add color.

Yes, Fairey’s take is more ‘modern’ than the photograph, but it’s virtually a carbon copy of the original photo in a different media! I’m not sure why Fairey is so defiant in thinking his image does not impose upon infringement laws.

What do you think? Is the AP being to harsh on Fairey? Did Fairey violate copyright laws?
AP's original photo is on the left, Fairey's image is on the right.