Do You Play Offense or Defense?

I’m just finishing two weeks of conferences with my students; we have been working through the drafts of their first trial briefs.  One of the topics we have been talking about is how to effectively incorporate counter-analysis in a principal brief. 

Before we broke for conferences, we talked about counter-analysis in class.  I tried to impress upon students that they cannot be effective advocates simply by making their own affirmative arguments and ignoring their opponent’s likely arguments.  Instead, they need to anticipate their opponent’s likely arguments and address those arguments as well.  I get little to no push-back from the students on that point; they can see the benefit of trying to neutralize opposing arguments from the outset rather than allowing the opponent to control the arguments in the response brief. 

Where students and I sometimes disagree, however, is about how best to approach counter-analysis. 

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The Obama “Hope” Poster Case — How Was the Poster Created?

(This is the fourth in a series of posts on Fairey v. Associated Press. See below for other posts in the series.)

There are two intriguing mysteries in the Shepard Fairey case related to how the Obama Hope poster (above right) was created. First, while Fairey’s poster looks pretty similar to Mannie Garcia’s photograph at left, Fairey actually claims he based his poster on a very different photograph, albeit one taken at the same event, with Obama looking in the same direction. Second, the complaint is fairly cagey about the actual creation process behind the poster. In particular, it’s not clear from the complaint whether Fairey simply photoshopped the Garcia photo, or rather created the poster by hand.

Why do either of these things matter? The first issue matters doctrinally; the amount of the copyrighted work that was taken helps to determine both infringement liability and counts in evaluating any fair use defense. The second issue matters more atmospherically; it just seems easier to credit a claim of substantial similarity, or conversely harder to credit a claim of fair use, if Fairey copied the original and altered it down, rather than creating a similar-looking version from the bottom up. I’d venture that that may be true even if the two processes led to exactly the same end product, although that might not make much sense as a theoretical matter.

So what’s the truth? Which image did Fairey use, and what did he do to it?

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Favorite Wisconsin Cases to Teach: State v. Stewart

Kodanko waits alone for the bus in a three-sided plexiglass bus shelter in downtown Milwaukee.  Three men approach.  Stewart and Moore enter the bus shelter, while their companion, Levy, remains outside.  They block Kodanko’s exit from the shelter.  Stewart says to Kodanko, “Give us some change, man.”  When Kodanko refuses, Stewart repeats his request three or four time in an increasingly loud voice.  Stewart then begins to reach into his coat.  Moore says, “Put that gun away.”  At the same time, Levy enters the shelter and tells his companions, “Let’s go.”  The three of them enter a restaurant across the street.  Moore returns a few minutes later to make small talk with Kodanko.  In due course, the police arrest Stewart for attempted robbery.  But was it really a robbery attempt, or just aggressive panhandling?

This is the subject of State v. Stewart, 420 N.W.2d 44 (Wis. 1988), which I teach in my Criminal Law course.  The case resonates with me on several different levels.

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