The Banksy of England

so it seems there's this (in)famous graffiti artist by the name of banksy, whose stencil-based art, adorning buidings and walls herethere&everywhere (mostly in britain) takes pot-shots at advertising and consumerism, the capitalist ethos, and warmongering in general. in a recent rant against advertising, he proclaimed:

Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

he is officially my hero of the week, and possibly the rest of the decade.

on his website he says (among other things):

Please feel free to copy any Banksy imagery in any way for any kind of personal amusement

Please do not take images off my website and ‘license’ them for a huge fee to a German calendar company