Fair Use

Today I'd like to consider "fair use" in the context of blogs. The issue of manipulation of copyrighted images is well exemplified by the case of the Obama "Hope" poster. Here, the A.P. sued the creator of the poster claiming that the work was based on a photo of Obama taken by one of its freelance photographers.

Reading the linked article, Suciô has a couple of takeaways:

• the pot of money involved, $800k, was big enough to attract legal flies,
• the artist covered up his use of the original picture.

Suciô will happy acknowledge claims of ownership of images by any renaissance artists, long-dead photographers or shyster lawyers who wish to contact him. They are welcome to their share of the miniscule puddle of imaginary money that Adsense will find some excuse to avoid paying at some future date.

 Suciô is particularly keen to hear from the East European tentacle-scat-pornographers responsible for the image underlying Cthulthu girl:

Sauce?!

Suciô does not wish to hear from the owner of Barney Frank's body.

Impress your neighbors with a Cthulhu bumper sticker

Worryingly, some of you have expressed a desire to support Cthulhu's campaign. As a public service, Suciô is happy to provide a bumper sticker for his sicker readers.

Feel-Bad Election 2012

As discussed in his previous post, Suciô believes that the 2012 election will be one where electors want to vote for a feel-bad candidate. While confident that he has what it takes to win such a race, Suciô is worried that potential competition may emerge.