LA Artist Sues Green Day for Copyright Infringement

March 24th, 2010 by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento

What do artists want? They want other artists to stop ripping them off. Here’s a great example of how a group of artists could have (and should have) licensed the use of an image from another artist. This isn’t about asking for permission, it’s about compensating another artist for their mental and manual labor, especially when the secondary artist (Green Day) can very well afford to pay for the use.

The example, Los Angeles-based artist Dereck Seltzer initiated a copyright infringement lawsuit against rock-band Green Day for copyright infringement, violation of the Lanham Trademark Act, unfair competition and injury to business reputation for misappropriation of Seltzer’s original art work titled Scream Icon. According to JD Journal, “In August of 2009, Seltzer was made aware that Green Day was using Scream Icon as their stage backdrop at their Los Angeles concert, in promotional materials and at other concerts.”