Does John Williams have no empathy?

The recent Logo Garden scandal has many graphic designers up in arms. From the Action Alert sent by AIGA to warn graphic designers about possible theft and plagiarism of their logos, to the blog post "Love Thy Logo" on RockPaperInk by Bill Gardner, it is clear many are appalled.When Gardner found more than 200 of his own designs offered on the site, he documented Williams' outrageous and unethical behavior along with examples of the slight modifications of well-known logos like the identity for World Wildlife Fund and Time Warner Cable that are also on the site.Clues concerning how Williams' feels can be gleaned from his recent guest post for the entrepreneurs blog On Startups, "No Capital? No Problem. What You Get For Free Is Priceless."  He gives readers a pep talk about starting their own business and the value of organic growth. He never clearly gives them a picture of how using one of his logos fits into this picture, but goes about instilling a spirit of comraderie with them accompanied by the claim that his experience with branding led him to make an easy to use logo maker available to startups and DIYers. As Gardner asserts in his post, these startups and DIYers will most likely have no idea where the work came from or that it is not his to sell.While many may be glad that the slight modifications that Williams made to the logos may actually increase his liability by demonstrating his willful copyright infringement, what bothers some designers most is the question of how he can do this to his colleagues. As Gardner says, "You'll note I avoided going on a tirade about the issues with the $100 internet logo firms. They have foibles that too deserve penance but designers have no forgiveness for theft. Thou shall not steal another designers work."One wonders what led Williams to take this path. Was it lack of integrity, greed, or simply no empathy for his colleagues? A recent article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, 'Why Should We Care?'—What to Do About Declining Student Empathy, discusses educators' concern about a decline in student empathy. The troubling conclusion of a recent study by a team of social psychologists is that American college students have been scoring lower and lower on a standardized empathy test over the past three decades. The article talks about what the reasons for this decline may be as well techniques to improve levels of empathy. Besides the social benefits, research also links empathy in students with better academic outcomes. Educators are concerned because when used with skill, empathy can guide us to balance the needs of ourselves, those around us, and our larger social contexts with judicious care. Taking on another person's thoughts and identifying with their emotions are traits at the core of empathy. Williams disregard for what the implications of his "logo maker" are for his fellow designers makes one think that he has not considered what it would be like to walk in their shoes.What do you think is behind Williams behavior—lack of integrity, greed, or simply no empathy?Sources:http://www.aiga.org/common/newsletter/source/August2011_Action_Alert.htmlhttp://www.rockpaperink.com/content/column.php?id=88http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/54498/No-Capital-No-Problem-What-You-Get-For-Free-Is-Priceless.aspxhttp://chronicle.com/article/Why-Should-We-Care-What/128420/

"Hope" Poster - Fair Use or Copyright Infringment?

One of the most celebrated works of campaign art in American history, Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster, was added to the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. The poster has also been the focus of a copyright-infringement lawsuit between Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press.In early February 2009, the Associated Press determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission. At the time of the Associated Press’ original allegations, Shepard Fairey’s attorney stated that the use of the image is “fair use” and thus protected by copyright law. A few days later Fairey filed a suit against the Associated Press, asking a judge to find that his use of an AP photo in creating the poster did not violate copyright law.In his February 9, 2009 Complaint for a declaratory judgment against the AP , Fairey claimed to have used an AP photograph of George Clooney sitting next to then-Senator Barack Obama as the source of the “Hope” posters. However, as the AP alleged in its March 11, 2009 response, Fairey had instead used a close-up photograph of then- Senator Obama from the same press event, which is an exact match for Fairey’s posters. In its response, the AP also correctly surmised that Fairey had attempted to hide the true identity of the source photo in order to help his case by arguing that he had to make more changes to the source photo than he actually did and that he at least had to crop it.In October 2009, Fairey admitted to the AP that he fabricated and attempted to destroy other evidence in an effort to bolster his fair use case and cover up his previous lies and omissions. In early 2010, it was disclosed in court that Fairey is under criminal investigation after he said he erred about which AP photo he used as a basis for “Hope.” He acknowledged that he had submitted false images and deleted other images to conceal his actions.As of April 2010, lawyers for artist Shepard Fairey were ordered to disclose the identities of anyone who deleted or destroyed records related to a copyright dispute over the Barack Obama “Hope” image. Fairey’s image has had an undeniable cultural impact. His red-white-and-blue poster of Obama with the word “Hope” at the bottom (pictured) has spurred an ongoing parade of parody images featuring everyone from Sarah Palin (“Nope”) to Heath Ledger (“Joke”).Paste magazine’s easy-to-use, web-based Obamicon generator—one of many online tools that make it easy to modify an picture to look like Fairey’s poster—has reportedly created more than 500,000 of these images.What do you think? Is the Obama "Hope" poster an example of fair use or copyright infringement?SOURCES:http://www.ap.org/iprights/fairey.htmlhttp://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/02/copyfight-erupt/http://www.copyright.gov/