In July, Associated Press photographer Mannie Garcia joined the copyright lawsuit brought by the Associated Press against California-based artist Shepard Fairey over Fairey's now-infamous Barack Obama poster.
In 2006, Garcia shot a photograph of Barack Obama while freelancing for the AP. In 2008, Fairey used Garcia's image as a reference for his Obama poster. The AP and Garcia are now suing Fairey for copyright infringement, and the courts must determine whether Fairey is protected under fair use laws.
Garcia is also suing AP for wrongfully claiming the copyright to the photograph that he shot. Garcia was not a full-time staff photographer when he shot the photo; AP claims that it owns the rights to images taken by freelancers.
Both the original photograph and the campaign poster have been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
The next conference for this trial has been scheduled for Nov. 20, at which time the court will try to determine which photograph was actually used as the muse for the poster.