While I thought, and still think that the AP’s pursuit of Shepard Fairey is bogus (original post is here), it’s become increasingly clear that he’s not telling the truth about his sources to anyone, including his lawyers, who just quit claiming that he had lied to them:

On Friday night, Fairey’s attorneys — led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University — said they intend to withdraw from the case and said the artist had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material.

Fairey admitted that he didn’t use The Associated Press’ photo of Obama seated next to actor George Clooney he originally said his work was based on — which he claimed would have been covered under ”fair use,” the legal claim that copyrighted work can be used without having to pay for it.

Instead he used a picture the news organization has claimed was his source — a solo picture of the future president seemingly closer to the iconic red, white and blue image of Obama, underlined with the caption ”HOPE.” Fairey said that he tried to cover up his error by submitting false images and deleting others.

I’m still a firm believer in an expansive definition of fair use, and I am still inclined to believe that the poster did not cross the line, but I’m also inclined to believe that Fairey is a dishonest self-aggrandizing hack, and that the court will likely spank him for that, and other people will use that decision to attempt to roll back fair use rights.