Shepard Fairey settles the Obama ‘Hope’ image Case

The street artist Shepard Fairey and The Associated Press have ended their long-running legal battle over whether Mr. Fairey violated copyright protections in using one of the news cooperative’s photographs as the basis for the well-known “Hope” campaign poster of Barack Obama.

Mr. Fairey, who sued The Associated Press pre-emptively in 2009 as it began to accuse him of infringement, claimed that he did not appropriate any copyrightable material and that his use of the photograph, which showed Mr. Obama at a National Press Club event in 2006, constituted a fair use under copyright law.

Last year, Mr. Fairey admitted that he had misstated which A.P. photo he had used for the image and acknowledged that he had submitted false images and deleted others to conceal his actions, leading to a criminal investigation in addition to the civil case.

In settling the civil lawsuit, “The A.P. and Mr. Fairey have agreed that neither side surrenders its view of the law,” The Associated Press said in a statement Wednesday. “Mr. Fairey has agreed that he will not use another A.P. photo in his work without obtaining a license from The A.P. The two sides have also agreed to work together going forward with the ‘Hope’ image and share the rights to make the posters and merchandise bearing the ‘Hope’ image and to collaborate on a series of images that Fairey will create based on A.P. photographs.” The statement added that the two sides had agreed to “financial terms that will remain confidential.”

A separate copyright infringement lawsuit against Obey Clothing, which makes T-shirts and other apparel with the “Hope” image, has not been settled and remains in court, The Associated Press said.