Litigation is ongoing in California federal courts between the heirs of Joe Shuster, the co-creator of the famous Superman comic book, and DC Comics, the division of Warner Bros. that held the rights to the Superman comics for more than 60 years. The case, which began in 2010, involves a convoluted series of copyright agreements and near agreements, complete with claims of unethical conduct by the heirs’ attorney, Marc Toberoff, a Hollywood insider. At issue presently is the effect of a 1992 agreement that, according to DC Comics, forfeited the heirs’ termination/clawback rights with respect to the Superman copyrights. Ultimately, the court will decide who owns the copyrights in the Superman comics, a piece of intellectual property that is worth millions.
Via Arent Fox LLP. Great article.
This is a great interview with law professor Christopher Sprigman, who teaches intellectual property law, antitrust law, competition policy, and comparative constitutional law at the University of Virginia Law School . They go over the somewhat governing case on this issue, Bridgeman Art Library, Ltd., Plaintiff v. Corel Corporation, and the general answer to the question above is, no. Here’s Sprigman,
The photos have to be flat, artless reproductions. The photos in Bridgeman vs. Corel were intended to illustrate the artwork and nothing more. Also, I’m talking about U.S. law. The laws in other countries may differ.
Great interview. Check it out!
September 14th, 2012 by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento in
Criminal
ART LAW SCHOOL: A SIX-WEEK COURSE
The focus of the ART LAW SCHOOL is to introduce the artist to the “must-know” legal and business issues that arise when making art. More importantly, this course will provide the artist with methods on how to set up and organize their practice; how to operate their practice; and how to protect their artwork and projects.
Topics Covered include:
- Business Entities & Employment Law: What Kind of Business?
- Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademark, Right of Publicity
- Contracts, Agreements, Negotiation Strategies
- Fundraising: Donations & Public Purpose Projects
- Free Speech & Right of Privacy
This course is open to all visual artists, architects, filmmakers, and two and three-dimensional designers. The course starts October 10, 2012.
Click here for more information.
The Art Law School is co-sponsored by the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and the New Art Dealers Alliance. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is an outreach partner of The Law Office of Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento.
An interesting — and challenging — article appeared today via Artinfo (I can’t tell who the writer is, if anyone does, please let me know) concerning the recent events in Egypt and Libya. The gist? “Governments should not apologize” for free speech.
[T]he government…was wrong.
The point I’m making here should be obvious: we do not, in civilized societies, respond to art works and other forms of expression with violence – no matter how “offensive” we think them. We respond with discourse. That is what civilization is. And not only do we not apologize for it; we demand it. At least, the art world does. It’s time for the State Department to do the same.
UPDATE: September 15, 2012
Our good friend and avid Clancco reader, Chris Culy, wrote to us earlier today: “I believe the author of ‘What The State Department Can Learn From The Art World’ is Abigail Esman. It is her picture at the top of the article, and the link to the article that the author wrote is also by her. I’ve been reading your blog for quite awhile, and quite enjoy it.”
Thanks, Chris, we enjoy blogging, too. And thanks for being an avid follower.
September 13th, 2012 by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento in
Copyright
This is very interesting, and scary.
Getty Images, the worldwide behemoth, “announced on Monday a deal with SparkRebel … in which images that users post to the site are recognized and their owners compensated for the use. The arrangement uses ImageIRC technology … a combination of an online image rights registry and image recognition technology based on fingerprinting.”
Appropriation artists beware. It’s coming.
Via Copyright and Technology.
