Quite contrary

Shepard Fairey's claim that he had the right to use a news photo to create his famous Barack Obama "HOPE" poster became a widely watched court case about fair use that now appears to have nearly collapsed.

By Friday night, his attorneys — led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University — said they intend to withdraw from the case and said the artist had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material.

Read the story here. That portrait now sits in the National Portrait Gallery.

The National Portrait Gallery had an easy way out of this mess and I offered them the idea here, and even sent it to them, but all that I heard back was this.

Had they taken my idea and run with it, they would be smelling like roses now, rather than having a work in their collection that allegedly violates copyright law.