Ralph Lauren And The Photoshop Issues

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Ralph Lauren. A very respected fashion brand. Photoshop. A very respected computer application. Filippa Hamilton, a very respected model. The Blogosphere. A very respected Vigilante.

Take the above mentioned, carefully stir them together and you have the viral Ralph Lauren ad poster with Filippa Hamilton whose upper body was photoshoped out of its regular anatomic proportions. First spotted on Photoshop Disaster, it spread, being furtherpublished by Boing Boing and so on. (click through to find out what happened in the Blogosphere Vs Ralph Lauren case!)

But get this: someone chez Ralph Lauren isn’t a fan of the Blogosphere, hence the DMCA complaint filed against Boing Boing & PhD (Digital Milennium Copyright Act). Resisting the wrongful complaint, Boing Boing’s editor, Cory Doctorow, cleared out the copyright law infringement signaled by the RL lawyers (This is classic fair use: a reproduction “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting,” etc.). Don’t try to contain the liberty of speech! It will blow in your face, just like it did in Blogosphere Vs Ralph Lauren: the reputed fashion brand issued a statement saying that:

“For over 42 years we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the caliber of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.”