Copyright Controversy After Appropriated Photo Used to Win Art Contest

In the two photographs above, the bottom image is a photo-manipulation created using the top image. Are they completely separate works of art? What if we told you the second photo was created without the original photographer’s permission and submitted to a contest as an original artwork? What if we told you it actually won?

 

I'll side with it being a rip off and he should lose his award of a new mac laptop.​

Source: http://www.petapixel.com/2013/04/02/copyri...