American artist Shepard Fairey was fined $25,000 and sentenced today in New York to two years on probation for tampering with evidence.
The artist’s 2008 poster of Barack Obama became an optimistic symbol of the last presidential campaign and spawned a bitter copyright battle.
In February, Fairey pleaded guilty to a criminal contempt charge after admitting that he had destroyed documents and fabricated others to try to conceal the fact that he had used a particular Associated Press photograph of Mr. Obama as the source of his well-known “Hope” campaign poster.
The news organization says it hopes this case will serve as a clear reminder of the importance of fair compensation for those who gather and produce original news content.
