What’s the Difference Between Richard Prince and DKNY?

I like this story. I wonder what my “free culture” and “authorship is dead” friends have to say about this. You see, this is all one needs to counter the “copyright is killing creativity” morons that never seem to understand that arguing for a free-for-all image-taking regime also leads to this: the exploitation of artists by mega corporations.

Brandon Stanton, aka Humans of New York, gives us his take on how DKNY pretty much blew him off when he asked for a more reasonable compensation for the use of his images. This is what happened. What do you think? Is DKNY’s unauthorized use of Stanton’s images fair use? Should DKNY be allowed to use Stanton’s images without fair compensation to Stanton? What’s the difference between DKNY and Richard Prince? Or better yet, what the hell is the difference between DKNY’s window display and art, at least most contemporary appropriation art?

Please do us the favor and don’t simply reply that it’s art because “it just is,” unless you want us to gauge our eyeballs out with the first no.2 pencil we see.

Tags: art, Copyright, dkny, exploitation, fair use, intellectual property, law, licensing, new york, photography, theft, window display