[Leica] Korda Wins on Che Photo

[chucko@siteconnect.com (Chuck Albertson)]

From the Times of London:

A PHOTOGRAPHER who captured a defiant pose of the Latin American
revolutionary Che Guevara won substantial damages yesterday after the
portrait was used in a British advert for spicy vodka.
Alberto Diaz Gutierrez, 72, took the advertising company Lowe Lintas and the
Rex picture agency to the High Court to sue for breach of copyright. The
40-year-old photograph was used in a Smirnoff advertising campaign last
year.

The Cuban photographer, who lives in Havana and is also known as Alberto
Korda, feared that the national hero was trivialised when the advertisement
featured Guevara with a hammer and sickle motif, in which the sickle was
represented by a chilli pepper.

An out-of-court settlement confirmed that he owned the copyright of the
picture and he was awarded an undisclosed sum, described as substantial. A
joint statement from Mr Korda, Rex and Lowe Lintas said: "All parties are
pleased to confirm that they have now settled their differences and Korda's
claim has now been sensibly and amicably resolved,"

Mr Korda, Fidel Castro's official photographer for 10 years, said that he
will give the money to a children's charity. Yesterday he was visiting an
exhibition of Cuban art work at the National Gallery in London. He said:
"The case was fought to defend the principle that all creators have a moral
and property right to their own work. The use to which it is put should not
damage the integrity of the artist or the subject. Alcohol and Che Guevara
have nothing in common."

The picture was taken on March 5, 1960, during a memorial service for more
than 100 crew of a Belgian arms ship killed in an attack by
counter-revolutionary troops. Korda was sent to cover the service by a
Havana newspaper.