Mercedes-Benz USA is asking a judge to protect it from legal action, or what Mercedes-Benz calls a “shakedown,” over its use of images of Detroit outdoor murals in social media posts.

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila refused to enforce a French court’s order mandating that defendant pay $2.2 million for infringing copyrights, ruling that defendant’s use of the Picasso images constitutes fair use.

For instance, if the Coca-Cola Company or Brillo had sued Warhol for copyright infringement, we might never have Pop art, right?

Larry Gagosian: “I think you always have to be on the side of the artist. Also, those approbations change over time, in terms of what’s acceptable as subject matter.”

Entire interview here.

We have here a situation of the perfect being the enemy of the good. I think what is disturbing is the rhetoric of some of the protestors, who are in favor of destroying the system. I think that would do irreparable harm. The protestors who want to destroy the system, want to destroy museums, don’t have a solution or a reasonable alternative to offer. It’s relatively easy to talk about destroying a system. It’s harder to build and sustain one. While I appreciate protests, those of us who are focused on solutions can’t be distracted by extreme perspectives.

More here.

Tananbaum, the chief investment officer of GoldenTree Asset Management LP — or, as Gagosian called him, the “imperious” multimillionaire — claims [Gagosian] lures unwary investors with promises of custom-made art, then keeps them waiting, and waiting, all the while using their payments to keep the scheme going. In his initial complaint he called it a “garden-variety, interest-free fraudulent financial routine that hearkens the name Ponzi.”

More via Bloomberg News.

Apparently (some) federal judges have bought into the argument that spraying aerosol on walls is art, or hell, not just art, but art blessed and protected by the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act.

If you’ve been keeping track of the 5Pointz lawsuit pitting property owners against graffiti “artists,” here’s an update. And yes, I do know that in this particular case the property owner consented to daily alterations of New York’s “Guernica.”

The Art & Law Program is happy to announce the Fall 2019 Art & Law Fellows. Once again, our decision-making was extremely difficult given our applicant pool. The incoming group includes a broad and diverse range of artistic, intellectual and professional interests, and we very much look forward to working with them.

In the fall 2019, the Program will examine artists’ legacies and artists’ estates through the lens of tangible and intangible property, contracts, moral rights, freedom of expression, and corporations. This will allow the fellows an opportunity to examine how sectors of the art industry— such as academia, the gallery system, for-profit and non-profit institutions, auction houses, curatorial practices, and law—impact the practices, definitions and controversies of contemporary art.

The Fall 2019 Fellows are:Juliana Biondo
Ivana Dizdar
Mira Friedlaender
Kearra Amaya Gopee
Danny Greenberg
Shervone Neckles
Cassie Packard
Chris Rawson
Armando Rosales Rivero
Susan Rosenberg
Elizabeth Smolarz
Aden Solway