Mama Rabbit Protests Park Policy (Apologies to Beatrix Potter)
One great thing about getting involved in the local issue of fighting the
National Park's policy of killing the rabbits in San Juan Island's
American Camp National Historical Park is the wealth of rabbit imagery available for appropriation to our cause. Last night with the help of photoshop I took Beatrix Potter's charming illustration of a disgruntled Mama Rabbit and transformed her umbrella into a protest sign thus taking a familiar image and enlisting it to serve my cause. I credit
Beatrix Potter by making an apology and hope I will not be sued. Chances are good no one in a position to sue me will ever see my appropriated use of Mama Rabbit. But what might happen if they did?
When Shepard Fairey's iconic image of Barack Obama began to generate
national interest, including
fame,
prestige and
money, the fact that the image was appropriated from a copyrighted
photograph by
Mannie Garcia came to light. Garcia, who was on assignment for the Associated Press at the time, claimed he owns the copyright. The Associated Press claimed they own the copyright. Fairey contends that his work is protected by the
fair use doctrine and does not infringe on the photo's copyright. When Fairey admitted to destroying evidence that he had used the photograph as was alleged by the AP it did not help his case and in May of 2010 the judge encouraged Fairey to settle.
The
fair use doctrine allows for certain limited use of copyrighted material without permission for uses like criticism, commentary, reporting, research and education.
