Shepard Fairey is an art law course unto himself. On the one hand, there's his copyright lawsuit against the AP, which raises all sorts of interesting and difficult questions. (Lawprof Bruce Boyden is in the midst on what's now a nine-part series of posts about the case.)
And today, the New York Times had a piece about the latest criminal charges against Fairey, headlined "Boston Vandalism Charges Stir Debate." According to the Times, Fairey has pleaded not guilty to one misdemeanor and 13 felony charges so far, and his lawyer says the police are pursuing 19 more counts. Jill Medvedow, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, where Fairey currently has a retrospective, is quoted as saying "he’s raising important issues about consent and who decides what we see in public spaces."
