Copyright Law

Nunsense

Posted on February 19, 2009
From today's New York Post:"The Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior say appraiser Mark Lasalle intentionally defrauded them by convincing them a painting they had was worth $450,000, and then promptly reselling it ... for $2 million."

"Transformative should cut both ways"

Posted on February 18, 2009
Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento takes up the question I posed yesterday:"I would add that it wouldn't necessarily have to be a 'crass commercial artist,' but could simply be a corporation searching for advertising material, such as Apple did with Marclay's video...

GWOAL

Posted on February 17, 2009
Derek Fincham draws some parallels between the "war on drugs" and antiquities-looting policies:"One of the weaknesses with prohibitionism is it restricts supply, without taking account of the potential demand. This makes the targeted trade ... more profitable, allowing better, more sophisticated tactics to evade law enforcement...

"I think unless you?re modifying it and making it your own, you?re on very tenuous ground"

Posted on February 17, 2009
Jim Johnson, who, when he first heard about Shepard Fairey's copyright dispute with the AP, said "it seems to me that AP ... has a loser on its hands legally," is having some second thoughts:"I am given some pause though, by this remark from a recent interview with graphics guru Milton Glaser: 'For myself?this is subjective?I find the relationship between Fairey's work and his sources discomforting...

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Schjeldahl on Fairey

Posted on February 16, 2009
Peter Schjeldahl's review of the Shepard Fairey retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston includes the following on his legal battle with the AP:"Fairey has run into a ... predictable legal snarl with the 'Hope' poster, having lifted the image from an Associated Press photograph...

"I hope the maximum amount of the $50 million finds its way into the pockets of artists and those who support them"

Posted on February 15, 2009
The NYT's Robin Pogrebin tells the tale of how money for the arts ended up making it into the stimulus bill approved by Congress last week.

"My gut tells me everybody is right!"

Posted on February 13, 2009
The Fairey debate comes to The Colbert Report. Watch it here.

Today's Fairey

Posted on February 12, 2009
Add Temple's David Post to the list of those who think the AP's claim against Shepard Fairey is "very weak." He cites two grounds: (1) "It's not an infringement .... [W]hat Obama looks like, and the tilt of his head, are not protected original elements of the photo ...

The Baer Law Journal

Posted on February 12, 2009
Josh Baer says he "feel[s] like the NY Law Journal reporting all these suits," but this week alone includes the following:"Earl Davis, the son of the painter Stuart Davis, has sued Joseph Carroll for $3 million alleging the 8 Davis paintings Carroll bought from Salander O'Reilly were knowingly bought ...

"I understand Fairey to have accessed the original event through the Garcia photo rather than to have physically remixed the photo itself"

Posted on February 12, 2009
In an update to the post mentioned here, David Post points to a post by the University of Chicago's Randy Picker that says the real question in the Fairey case is "what was copied from the Garcia work, as opposed to taken from the original event as accessed through the Garcia work...

Anti-trust

Posted on February 10, 2009
Artnet's Paul Jeromack mentions two "recent museum deaccessions" included in Christie's latest Old Master sale -- one sold by the Met at Sotheby?s in 2006 for $632,000 (the buyer just resold it for $722,500), and the other, "a masterpiece of Anglo-American neoclassicism and very much unlike most pictures by West in American collections," sold by the Corcoran for a "bargain" price of $458,500...

More Difficult Questions

Posted on February 10, 2009
Last night is was "Who Owns Art?" This morning, the Boston Globe asks: "What is crime and what is art?"

Fairey Files

Posted on February 09, 2009
Shepard Fairey has filed for a declaratory judgment that his Obama image does not infringe The AP's copyrights in the photo on which it is based.

Hold Your Horses

Posted on February 09, 2009
Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento points to a story about a public art controversy in Denver. I thought this was interesting to hear:"City rules require any public-art installation to remain in place for at least five years, to honor the artist's intent and give the work a chance to grow on the public...

Who Owns Art?

Posted on February 09, 2009
I make an appearance in this piece by Nicole Savery (page 11) on some ongoing ownership debates.

"What makes people ? even cops ? think photography is a crime?"

Posted on February 08, 2009
Ann Althouse notes a story about a guy who was arrested after he "snapped a photo of a woman's bottom as she sunned herself in Central Park." He sued, and the city paid $8,000 to settle.

To the Editor

Posted on February 07, 2009
The New York Times runs a bunch of letters to the editor today on the Rose story. A sampling:"My wife, my two sons, several of my closest friends and I graduated from Brandeis University. We are upset that Brandeis may sell some or all of its wonderful art collection...

Legal trouble of a different kind . . .

Posted on February 07, 2009
. . . for artist Shepard Fairey, currently embroiled in a copyright dispute over his famous Obama image:"[Fairey] was arrested Friday night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff event for his first solo exhibition .... Two warrants were issued for Fairey on Jan...

"Beginning Feb. 17, the museum no longer will be open on Tuesdays. It already is closed on Mondays"

Posted on February 07, 2009
The Akron Beacon Journal reports that the Akron Art Museum, "facing a roughly 25 percent decline in its endowment, will close on Tuesdays, lay off employees and cut some other workers' hours." The number of exhibitions at the museum next year will also drop to eight or nine, down from 15 this year.

That makes three

Posted on February 06, 2009
According to Charlottesville's The Hook, Christie's filed a lawsuit against collector Halsey Minor "on Monday in Northern California federal court ... for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of contract over $7 million he bid for three paintings he purchased at an auction in July...

It's On

Posted on February 05, 2009
The AP is coming after artist Shepard Fairey over his iconic Obama image:"'The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission,' the AP's director of media relations, Paul Colford, said in a statement...

What's going on with the Rose?

Posted on February 05, 2009
Earlier today, Geoff Edgers posted a letter from Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz, apologizing for "screw[ing] up," and explaining that his initial statements "gave the misleading impression that we were selling the entire collection immediately, which is not true...

Iowa Denial

Posted on February 05, 2009
Iowa legislators are denying reports (mentioned yesterday here) that they having been discussing requiring the University of Iowa to sell its Pollock.

Mars and Venus

Posted on February 05, 2009
I mentioned a piece yesterday by Judith Dobrzynski, which talked about the differing reactions to the Rose story by those inside the art world, on the one hand, and the rest of the world, on the other. Here's an example from the rest of the world: San Diego law professor Gail Heriot...

"That's the trouble with fair use"

Posted on February 05, 2009
I started collecting reactions to the AP's claim of copyright infringement re Shepard Fairey's Obama image. A few more:Brooklyn Law's Jason Mazzone asks, "Is the use fair? Hard to say. That's the trouble with fair use." He goes on to say that "a more interesting problem" is whether the AP photograph meets "the threshold requirement of originality...

One Eighty

Posted on February 05, 2009
Felix Salmon offers some answers to the questions I raised in the update to this post yesterday. Libby Ellis emailed some thoughts in response:"I don't understand Felix's 180 on Iowa. How could he support selling Pollock's Mural precisely because it's one of the greatest American paintings of the 20th century and ought to be in a more prominent museum collection that can presumably promote and protect it better (his argument in August), and then suddenly say that the same piece should never be sold - not even to another museum - because it's 'core' to the collection? That is quite an about-face...

On Deck (UPDATED)

Posted on February 04, 2009
Looks like a sale of the University of Iowa Museum of Art's Jackson Pollock is once again being discussed. Richard Lacayo and Tyler Green have the latest.As Lacayo reminds us, there was a "brief uproar" around the painting last August. My posts on that uproar include this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, and, finally, this one...

"Can you blame the public for believing that art is an investment, to be cashed in when expedient?"

Posted on February 04, 2009
At Forbes.com, Judith Dobrzynski tries to explain the widely divergent reactions of the art world and the general public to the Rose story.She lists a bunch of reasons why the public has come to see art "as a tradeable commodity."One good reason that doesn't make the list is that (whatever else it may be) art is a tradeable commodity...

Poster Boy

Posted on February 04, 2009
In this morning's New York Times, Randy Kennedy has an interesting story on the arrest of "Poster Boy" -- the street artist who has "made his outlaw presence known all over the city by cutting and pasting the images that are already [in the subway system] in the form of ads...

"... has sent a chill down the collective spines of the major auction houses"

Posted on February 03, 2009
Judd Tully has a piece in the February Art+Auction on the Christie's decision I wrote about back in November here.I'm quoted in the piece as follows:"The logic of this decision, says Donn Zaretsky of the New York law firm John Silberman Associates, means that 'any subsequent buyer ? no matter how remote in time and no matter how many intervening transactions have occurred ? could potentially bring a fraud claim against an auction house as market maker...

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