excellent question.
Fair Use can be a double edged sword. I think Nike had a campaign for a while that ripped off the popular 'Minor Threat' front cover image of Ian's brother Alec with shaved head sitting on steps before a show.
Fair use is fine to most people if the argument is a little guy wanting to pepper up his work with sample x and sample y, but if a huge company wants to do it, it is frowned upon.
Personally, I just thought it was cool a fucking awesome band like the Oxes was getting some press.
Posted by tgl on 2006-08-11 17:44:04 +0000
I don't think that Old Navy (Gap?) is actually "sampling" the image or is protected under fair use.
There is a difference between sampling and reproduction. I can't submit a recording I made of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" off the radio to said radio station for broadcast under my name. But I could create my own song using samples of the other recording. An example does spring to mind, at the moment. ;)