Obama photographer “irritated” over NORML “Yes We Cannabis” poster

From today’s Washington Post Reliable Source:

For their annual conference poster, they took an old photo of cool-dude college freshman Obama puffing away — on a regular cigarette, mind you — and tweaked it just ever so slightly to fit their message: “Yes We Cannabis.”

Think it might be a problem for the president (who opposes legalization)? It’s really a problem for the photographer. Lisa Jack, an Obama classmate at Occidental College, snapped the image in 1980, one in a series of photos that never saw the light of day until she debuted them in Time’s 2008 Person of the Year issue. She had no idea her photo had been appropriated by NORML until we told her Tuesday.

“They do not have my permission,” said Jack, a psychology professor in Minnesota. These photos “are absolutely not to be used in this way. … I really made a grand effort to do this properly, and I’m very irritated. If I’d wanted these to be used for political purposes, I’d have sold them to Hillary years ago.”

Jack, whose photos now have a gallery show in L.A., grudgingly admits “it’s really cool” that the images are already iconic enough to steal.

US Copyright Office’s fact sheet on “fair use” (emphasis mine):

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

We are selling the poster, no doubt. But the “we” in question is a non-profit educational foundation.  It is obviously a political satire meant as a criticism and comment about President Obama continuing the failed policy of cannabis prohibition.  It promotes a conference presented for the education of cannabis activists and the general public.

Original Lisa Jack Photo

Besides, look at the original picture.  It is obvious to anyone looking at it that Obama appears to be smoking a joint.  I’ve received numerous emails from readers when I first displayed the photo asking me whether the object was in fact a joint.  We felt that the original was simply begging for someone to point this out, so we did.  We understand that Jack might be irritated by someone defacing her work, but that’s what “fair use” is all about.

Compare it to these satires in MAD Magazine:

MAD Magazine Obama satire

Here we have a Photoshopped Barack Obama head, which must have come from someone’s copyrighted photo, pasted onto Steve Carrell’s body in a “40-Year-Old Virgin” movie poster that I’m pretty sure is copyrighted.  But it’s obviously a political satire.

MAD Magazine Phelps satire

Here we have a shot of Michael Phelps in the pool, probably a copyrighted shot, with a joint Photoshopped in (like the NORML poster) and the service marks of High Times Magazine.  Oh, and a Harold & Kumar shot as well.  But it is a parody.

One big difference, though, is that MAD Magazine is not a non-profit entity.