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Polaroid Collection Update

By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.

The Art Newspaper has the latest on "the last-gasp campaign to stop the sale of works from the Polaroid Collection." Apparently 56 artists have signed on to be plaintiffs in a motion for a rehearing "which campaigners hope to file" in Minnesota bankruptcy court. The campaigner-in-chief is former US magistrate judge Sam Joyner, who says he is "trying to find pro-bono legal representation."

Joyner says that "according to the photographers, some of the works were placed in the collection with promises of no commercial use, and perpetual access to the image by the photographers."

The Art Market Monitor counters: "The courts have already made it clear that they have altered the terms of the contract between the artists and the Polaroid Corporation. Whether that is 'morally' right is less important than the fact that it is legally correct. Bankruptcy courts change contracts and ownership rights. That?s what they do."

The usual comprehensive round-up from A.D. Coleman here.

Full post as published by The Art Law Blog on April 20, 2010 (boomark / email).