Rarely do my interests in design and politics get to meet up. Here however is one of those lucky instances. Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the ubiquitous Obey Giant stickers and the Obama "Hope" poster is in trouble over the origins of that image. The Associated Press is suing him for copyright violation as one of their photos was the reference material that Fairey used when creating his iconic poster. The AP asserts that the original photo is an artistic work that is entitled to protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Fairey counters that his art falls under the fair use portion of copyright law, as he just used the photo as a reference for the then-senator's facial features, but that his design is an original work of art in and of itself. Moreover, Fairey asserts that his poster and the original photo do not compete in the same marketplace, as that one was an exercise in photojournalism while his was a work of art. Judge for yourself below: In an interesting twist, Fairey is actually the one suing the AP over the matter. His preemptive lawsuit hopes to declare his work protected from copyright infringement claims. Learn more about the whole confusing mess here. If you don't like reading—or you just really love Rachel Maddow like I do—you can watch the MSNBC host interview Fairey in this clip. Enjoy all you political geeks!