It took the Associated Press more than seven months to find out artist Shepard Fairey created his Obama "Hope" poster based on one of the news consortium's photos. It also took Shepard Fairey actually telling the AP that he used their photo for them to notice and get all lawsuit-happy. Because, yep, the AP is now ready to sue him him for copyright infringement. (And he's also ready to sue them!! Their attorneys are meeting to discuss the matter.) But what if the AP doesn't hold the exclusive image of Obama posed in such a way? What if there is a Creative Commons version of a terribly similar photo that allows the "sharing" and "remixing" of the photo?

Then either: 1) Fairey is foolish for acknowledging the AP as his inspiration; 2) He could've easily fallen back on the explanation that he used a legitimately licensed photo to create his poster, and been off the hook for the whole thing.

Or both.

As the above image demonstrates, a CC-licensed photo that shows Obama in a very similar, nearly indistinguishable pose exists. And there are likely many more out there, if Lessig.org has any say about it. Of course, this photo (above right) in particular carries a license that says anyone who uses the image must credit its author — which Fairey's usage failed to do. Since he snagged the AP's image.