Artist asked for payments countersues.

In a pre-emptive strike, the street artist Shepard Fairey filed a lawsuit on Monday against The Associated Press, asking a federal judge to declare that he is protected from copyright infringement claims in his use of a news photograph as the basis for a now ubiquitous campaign poster image of President Obama...

..According to the suit, A.P. officials contacted Mr. Fairey’s studio late last month demanding payment for the use of the photo and a portion of any money he makes from it.

The suit asks the judge to declare that Mr. Fairey’s work is protected under fair-use exceptions to copyright law, which allow limited use of copyrighted materials for purposes like criticism or comment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/arts/design/10fair.html?_r=1

A better look: http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2009/02/shepard-fairey-sues-associated-press.html

-- Bob Clarida, an expert in copyright and intellectual property laws, has stated that, “This would be a tough fair use argument (for Shepard Fairey) to win because the 'transformation' is purely in the look of the work, not the purpose. There's no commentary going on.

_ I disagree. I think it's quite clear that a purposeful transformation has taken place. The message of the work has changed with significant value added.