Shepard Fairey Creator of famous Obama Hope Poster in legal trouble

39 year old artist Shepard Fairey is facing legal trouble due to a law suit against the Associated Press claiming the images he used to design the poster were under "fair use". The AP always claimed Fairey based his poster on a picture taken by their photographer Manny Garcia of Obama sitting by himself. Fairey initially claimed that he based himself on a picture of Obama sitting by George Clooney in the same event.

To prove his case Fairey submitted false images and deleted others. Upon his admittance of this, his lawyers have withdrawn from the case. This has created great debate between groups that advocate artists "fair use" and journalists copyright protection.

Fairey apologized for the way he handled the case but claims that regardless of the images he used the fair use issue should be the same.