Hoping for Fair Use

Who doesn’t love Shepard Fairey’s HOPE poster of Barack Obama?   In it Barack Obama doesn’t represent red states or blue states but the United States of America and is sporting our universal American colors as he looks especially presidential?  I heard part of Terry Gross’ interview with Shepard Fairey today on Fresh Air as I was driving to a school.  He argued that his use of Mannie Garcia’s Obama pic fell under the guidelines of fair use.   Since he made artistic choices in his representation  of Obama that altered the feeling that the image evoked and used it for  a wholly different purpose, to inspire rather than merely represent, it was a protected use.  Not being a legal scholar, a copyright clerk, or anything else that remotely qualifies me for commenting, my opinion isn’t worth much.  Nonetheless, here it is:

Throughout the interview,  Terry, Shepard, and Mannie, during his segment, would say that Shepard “used” Mannie’s image.  Now there is a sense in which that is true, obviously, and a sense in which it isn’t.  I think during the interview the two different senses of “use” were conflated by all three individuals.

Sense #1 – Clearly Shepard Fairey used this image as the basis for his poster.  But here’s the artist’s problem.  He wants to do a poster of Barack Obama.  Does he have access to Obama as a subject? No.  His only access to what Obama looks like is through the video and images put out there by the press.  That’s the only way any of us who have not had the pleasure of meeting Obama and taking his picture even know what he looks like.  So to make a poster of Obama he has to use an image that has been put out there by the media.  What else is he supposed to do.

Sense #2 – Here’s the sense in which he certainly did not use Mannie’s picture.  He did not simply take Mannie’s picture and put the picture in his own work like a book, a blog, a mailing, a website, etc.  That would be “using” the image.  Fairey hand drew the image and substantially stylized the look.

If using the photo as he does in sense #1 is not protected by fair use, it seems like the following are not allowable either:

• A travel agency using pictures of brand new buildings and street art for a particular city in an ad campaign
• Associated Press photographers taking pictures of any artistic endeavor or of anything that would be someone’s intellectual property

My sense is, Sense #1 is protected under the guidelines of fair use,and most likely Sense #2 is not.  Shepard Fairey should be alright.  That’s my 2 cents.  Ha!

A Community Educational Portal? Matching needs with resources.

I very much appreciate that we now have a president who is calling on all of us to make what we will of the world we live in – we are the change that we need.  He has called on all of us be better than we are.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who’ve been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can.” – Barack Obama during his Inauguration Address

So this is just prelude to the fact that finding a way to do things better is always at the forefront of my mind.  I am inspired.  However, I get ideas, but I don’t do a good job of following through and seeing them come to fruition.  Just today, I had a random thought that I think could lead to something valuable.  I’d love to see it realized.  So I’ll do my best to pursue it.

Here’s where the real rambling begins (sorry!):

I work for SDUSD and have had the pleasure of working with several organizations outside of education through partnerships to help bring meaningful experiences into the classroom.   I’m sure there are numerous organizations that would love to work with education to help grow a competent workforce either through providing funding, lesson resources, experts, etc.  Likewise, I’m sure there are a plethora of teachers that would love to work with a business partner.  The problem is that the two sometimes need an introduction either becuase they are bashful, don’t know who to contact, or don’t know what to talk about.

So here is my thought:  With today’s technology resources, there are limitless resources for bringing people together to help each other out.  For example, NPR recently did a story on a website called USA together.  It’s a website where injured US service members can post a need that they have and community members can offer to help.  Conversely, community members can offer to help and injured service members can accept the offer.  There are many other examples of these sorts of portals where people who have a need can be matched with those who have a resource.  (Other examples:  USAservice.org, micro-philanthropy sites, etc)  Why not create a community portal for matching educational partners with teachers and schools who would love the help.  It could become a central clearinghouse for providing at least one of the types of change that we need.

So here’s where what I think is a great idea catches a snag:

• The Talent Issue – Who has the skill to design and/or manage a portal like this?  Would you use a Google group or site?  Would you use a wiki?  There must be a better way.
• The Responsibility Issue – Who should host it?  County office of education?  A local university?  Should it be national or local?
• The Money Issue – Where would funding come for such a project?
• Self doubt – is it worth doing? Will people use it?  How do you get the message out there?
• Cynicism – are community businesses, foundations, organizations willing to help?  (obviously I assumed so above because I know of several who would be, but is interest large enough to merit a larger clearinghouse or should these partnerships continue to be formed more piecemeal?)