Shepard Fairey beats the AP to court....twice

By Eriq Gardner

Quick update on the battle between the Associated Press and the street artist who used an AP photograph to create a Barack Obama poster.

Shepard Fairey has filed a lawsuit against the AP, seeking to "vindicate" his "fair use" of the image. He's being represented by Stanford Law School’s Fair Use Project and a San Francisco-based law firm and, interestingly, the lawsuit was filed in New York District Court. Not waiting to be sued by the AP lets Fairey pick the forum.

According to Fast Company, Fairey was also arrested earlier in the week for tagging a property in Boston with graffiti, just as he was about to DJ a party at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art where a 20-year career retrospective of his work is being shown.