Worth a watch:

On Sky Arts, today at 2pm:

"Andy Warhol's Factory People"

Tells the story of the 60’s Silver Factory that Andy founded in 1964 in an abandoned hat factory on East 47th Street in New York City. The Silver Factory lasted until 1968 when Andy gave up the lease and moved to the White Factory on Union Square. Shortly after moving in the Spring of ’68 Andy was shot by Valerie Solanas and this event bookends the period of time covered in “Factory People”.

very fair point Warmgun and one i should immediately qualify, i meant that you don't have to have a degree in fine art or be on the buyers list at a 'by appointment only' gallery up West, by saying un-elitist i simply meant that art on the street is for everyone from the aristocrat to the bin man.
many people i know who like Banksy have no interest whatsoever in collecting him, other than say a Wall & Piece book and an Exit DVD.

just to take up your point about private sales and buyers list's etc, this is only my opinion but i believe to Banksy they are a necessary evil - a means to an end if you like.
he's released one print in 2010 and all proceeds were donated, yes the film will be making him some money but to fund the way he does his thing on the street, studio rental costs etc he needs some serious cash coming in and the quickest, easiest and most reliable way of doing that is by selling to a select clientele at a vastly inflated premium and this afford him the ability to sell you and i prints for £450.

The actual photo was taken at the bristol museum just before the show...I have literally thousands of banksy pics on a data base...will post more soon.

56 seconds into the video:

I don't think he set out to align himself with Haring but that the piece was a continuation and development of the idea behind the "Guard with Koons balloon dog"..which was ok if not a little ambivalent in it's meaning.. Guard, Security, Protection, Art etc.. a fun piece but maybe not so clear.. The Haring dog is spot on in that respect, "Choose your weapon"?... I choose art, education, graffiti etc. Not dissimilar to the "Art/Education" phase that went through "conscious" raising Hip Hop.
A call to arms for the dispossessed to stop fighting and get educated. Choose your Weapon.. I choose art. I think it reflects the scene really well. I guess a few in the CYW queue could have done with an attack dog at times...

i couldn't agree with this more, the phrase "knowledge is power" has never been more relevant than it is now.
in a literal sense at the time Banksy put this on the street there was a big story in the media about how organised gangs/criminals were increasingly using dogs as a form of intimidation and at times violence.

considering that, i think the fact that he has used Haring in this piece sends out a message that you should enlighten and educate yourself instead of having to resort to violence, a take on the pen being mightier than the sword if you like.

as it happens, there was a young guy at the front of the queue who went off after the raffle tickets were given out and when he came back he had a pretty fierce looking dog on a leash - the irony was not lost to a few us in the queue.....

I think a lot of it comes down to how well known the Artists name is to the general public, those who are not interested in Art. Most people have heard the Name Andy Warhol, even if they couldn’t reliably recognise a piece of his art, so Banksy is doing really well in the way that people probably recognise his work even more than Warhol, and even to the extent that in many cases all street art images are attributed to Banksy.

Mason Storm is modern day Banksy