To be or not to be

After doing some research on a topic this week for one of my classes, I found this topic very unique. In the news their was a guy named Shepard Fairey who found a picture of our president Obama and edit it to his own. After this happen the company that took the picture he found online (Associated Press) claimed that Mr. Fairey violated the use of their picture. This claim has been an on going battle between the two parties. My thoughts on this is if AP used a type of copyright system like Creative Commons to copyright their picture then there would be no means to go though all of the courts, lawyer's fee and ect. I believe that Mr. Fairey did nothing wrong because in all the reading I did on this topic stated he did not received any money for his poster. I think if he had received money then he should have credit AP. Now on the other hand if AP put some kind of copyright on their picture then Mr. Fairey was at fault for not saying where he go the picture from. I think the best way to stop stuff like this from happening is to simple credit where you got the picture or whatever you are working with that is not 100% yours. If you do not know about a picture you are editing then you need to find were it was from, ask about it and remember if you are not using that picture for money or anything else that would violate the fair use provision of the copyright law than you are in the right to use that materials. Now for the companies out their, if you do not want people taking your work then simple slap a copyright on it and be careful where you put it on the web. Copyrights not only say who gets the rights of that material but also lets others know they cannot use that material. It is a nice system when everyone knows about the material they can and cannot use.