On the art message boards I frequent, we run into this quite often.

[frazzled]

6. Yeah, I was going to mention "Appropriation art" as well

Sherri Levine, Richard Prince, etc.

On the other hand, these artists were upfront about what they were doing: the appropriation was a conceptual part of the work itself. The point of it, in fact.

I don't know that Zimmerman had that intent. Still, there's nothing wrong with appropriating an image ... as long as you have the right to do so and are not simply stealing someone else's work for your own personal gain. Shepard Fairey got busted for it, with his Obama poster. Which, personally, I think was unfair (and politically motivated). Still, there's a fine line between appropriation and theft and protecting artist's rights to their imagery (which I also believe in)--the answer is all in the intent and in the process.