Revenge is sweet.

Decades ago photographer  Alberto "Korda" Díaz Gutiérrez snapped a famous picture of Ernesto "Che" Guavara. The enemy of capitalism is on everything from soda cans to designer dresses. His kids aren't happy about it. Too damn bad!

More after the fold....

The National Licensing show is next week, and a few years back, I remember seeing someone trying to peddle  Alberto "Korda" Díaz Gutiérrez's famous portrait of Che Guavara. Now at first, I was nonplussed. After all, the photo was in the public domain (Cuba wasn't in the international copyright union at the time), right?

The fight over who owns the image is still going on. Che's kids, Korda's daughter has been fighting somewhat successfully to get some control over the image back. There's even a movie about it. The image, not Che. The man is being done as an epic by Steven Soderburgh and is coming out in the fall.

the "misuse" of the image is good. It's part of the booty from the Cold War, much like the Republican's use of Red. R(ed was the lefty color back in the day, still is in most places). Korda's photo has been used to promote all sorts of things that Che was against (like the abolition of capital punishment). The guy was a murderer and a thief, and did much to damage the planet. Using the image inappropriately is the perfect revenge on a monster.