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"I don?t want it out there in the world. It just makes it worse"

By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.

The NYT's Kate Taylor had an interesting story a few days ago on NYU's purchase ("for an undisclosed price") of the archives of artist Larry Rivers. The issue is that the archives include "films and videos of his two adolescent daughters, naked or topless, being interviewed by their father about their developing breasts." One of the daughters says she "was pressured to participate, beginning when she was 11," and "is demanding that the material be removed from the archive and returned to her and her sister."

NYU has "pledged to keep the material off limits during the daughters? lifetimes," but Amanda Marcotte says "that?s not enough. Rivers abused his children, and NYU shouldn?t cooperate in the abuse, even in the name of art. They should let [the daughter] destroy the videos if she wants."

Dorothy King agrees: "She was underage, she couldn't consent to the photos, and NYU should return the photos and videos to her."

And lawprof Rob Heverly says: "My proposal, currently being developed in a piece for the 'I/S' journal and based on my presentation at this conference at Ohio State past spring, is that minors who appear in videos or photographs have a right to either assent object to ? and thus allow or prevent ? distribution of the video or photographic artifacts in which they appear. Today?s NY Times article convinces me that, while the idea still needs some work, I?m at least traveling down the right path. This just can?t be right."

Full post as published by The Art Law Blog on July 11, 2010 (boomark / email).