Shepard Fairey, the artist who gained notoriety for creating the infamous Barack Obama ?Hope? poster using an image from the Associated Press has been convicted of ?destroying and fabricating documents? in a civil lawsuit. According to The Smoking Gun, federal prosecutors want to make an example out of him and have filed a memorandum with the sentencing judge arguing that part of his conviction should include jail time and a fine upwards of $3.2 million.
From The Smoking Gun:
“A sentence without any term of imprisonment sends a terrible message to those who might commit the same sort of criminal conduct,” wrote prosecutor Daniel Levy in a September 2 memo. “Encouraging parties to game the civil litigation system…creates terrible incentives and subverts the truth-finding function of civil litigation.”
…
Levy stated that Fairey reaped significant reputational and financial benefits from the Obama “Hope” image, which was created in early–2008. The prosecutor specifically cited the escalating combined profits of three Fairey companies, which grossed $2.93 million in 2007, $4.59 million in 2008, and $6.08 million in 2009.
Update:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/shepard-fairey-dodges-prison-683412
This guy is jello. He says he didn’t plagiarize an AP photo that made him $10 million, then gets caught destroying and fabricating documents that prove he plagiarized an AP photo and NOW he skates w/ a $25K fine and 300 hrs. comm. service. $25K from $10XL? I can do that math.
Yet Bush/Cheney never even got fined.
Good point Keith. Also totally unrelated to this story of plagiarism and punishment…. You may as well insert an opinion about the Dali Lama’s position on birth control while you’re at it.
I think Shepard Fairey plagiarized the photo. Then he made a crap-ton of money off it. Then, being rich, he hired an expensive and talented lawyer to defend himself and got off nearly scott-free. And there you have it: the American Dream!
Dave,
It’s very relative in terms of who gets charged with a crime and who doesn’t. I’m not making excuses for the guy and he should be held accountable. It’s just too bad that others aren’t.