Copyright Infringement Role Play – June15th
ESL 261 Himes – SP11
Shepard Fairey created a campaign poster for Barack Obama from what he thought was an
Associated Press photograph that he found on the Internet. He modified the photo and added the
word HOPE at the bottom. Later, the Associated Press stated the Fairey should pay royalties for using
the photo and a fine for having broken the copyright laws. Stanford Law School’s Fair Use Project filed
a suit against the AP on Fairey’s behalf claiming that he had a right to use it be cause of “fair use”
laws. Mannie Garcia has since realized that it was his photo used in the poster. He claims that he was
not working for AP at the time the photo was taken. He also does not feel it was right for Fairey to
have used the photo without permission.
Characters:
Shepard Fairey’s team (5)
 The people on Shepard Fairey’s team should go to the NPR site. Also do other searches and
see what you can find. Look for his artwork. Look for his own website. Be ready to argue why
your artwork based on this photo is allowed under fair use laws and you did not break any
copyright laws. If you win, artists will be allowed to modify images for their own art without
paying. If you lose, all artists will have to pay to use any image in their work.
Mannie Garcia’s team (5)
 If you are on Mannie Garcia’s team, visit the NPR site, do a Google search and look for
interviews with him or news articles mentioning his name. See if you can find some of his
photos. You feel the photo is yours and that you are protecting your livelihood by asking people
not to take your work off the Internet for free.
Associated Press’ team (5)
 Those working on the Associated Press team do not have a specific character to study, but
you do need to learn about the Associated Press and what it is. You must also learn what their
position on this issue is. Start with the NPR interviews and then do your own research on the
topic for news articles and interviews with the important people in this case. Be ready to argue
why this photo is yours and not Garcia’s and why Fairey shouldn’t have used it. If you win,
artist’s images will be protected from those who would take them without asking and without
paying. If you loose, anyone could take anything for free. You will no longer have control of the
photos you paid photographers to take.
Copyright historians (5)
 Copyright historians will learn about the copyright laws and any similar court cases about fair
use that have already been decided. Any of the teams may contact a copyright historian and
ask that person to testify (answer questions in court) as an expert witness. Lawyers, make sure
that you only ask questions of these witnesses that you are sure will be answered in a way
favorable to your client. Don’t let yourself be surprised by your own witness.
Judges (5)
 Judges will learn about copyright laws and past court cases on similar topics. The judges will
hear the testimony, keep order in the court and then decide who the photo belongs to and if
Fairey may use it and under what conditions.
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How it Works:
Each person will be assigned a team relating to a person with a position. Here are a few ways to work
with your team and divide up the tasks on presentation day. It doesn’t matter which way you decide to
divide organize your jobs, but you should decide before the event how you want to do it (you may use
any combination or come up with your own plan). I just ask that every one gets a turn.

Every one will do research on the topic. Go to my website and follow the NPR links on
copyright infringement to listen to Interviews with Shepard Fairey, Mannie Garcia and a law
professor. Also, do research about fair use laws. Look online or in the library. Find other cases
that were decided for and against people who were accused of infringing on copyrights. At the
bottom of the NPR pages are listener comments. They will often give you ideas about where
you can start your research.

Decide how to organize your team. You may want to divide up the roles. One person can play
a real person like Garcia or Fairey, one or two others can play lawyers and you can have one
or two expert witnesses-maybe a law professor, an artist, a photographer, a businessperson, a
expert on fair use copyright laws or anything else that you can think of. Trade roles around as
you need them.
Instead of having one person assigned strictly to one role, you may prefer to work in a more
tag-team manner where one person might start out as an Associated Press lawyer, but then
suddenly run out of ideas or forget the right words and call for a new team member to come
out and take his or her place.
A third way to handle it is to have your members who are not currently “acting” to stand by for
an emergency phone call from one of the characters. If a character forgets what to say, that
person can pretend to call for help and the team can tell him or her what to say.

If you want to argue like a good lawyer, read up on the characters you will be supporting. If
you are arguing in favor of Fairey, find other court cases where fair use was used and the
borrower of the original material won the case. If you are arguing in favor of the AP or Garcia,
find cases where the court decided in favor of the original creator of the material, not the
person who copied it. Also find any evidence you can to support your argument about whom
the material belongs to, Garcia or the AP. This may not be possible for us to really do, but find
what you can. Also, contact the copyright historians to find out if any of them have
information that can help your team. The lawyers will present their arguments to the judges
and call the other characters to the stand as witnesses. During the trial, call on any helpful
historian as an expert witness to testify in your favor.
Each group will receive a score in the following areas. The grade will be averaged in with your
presentation grade
Participation
Research
Content
Clarity
Total
5 points
5 points
5 points
5 points
20 points
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