After last week’s brutal attack on Paris’ satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and in many ways on free speech in general, censorship remains as crucial an issue as ever. While sources like The Telegraph and the Associated Press self-censored images of past Hebdo covers in the wake of the tragedy, blurring out potentially “immoral” images of the Prophet Mohammed, other outlets defiantly published the same works. It’s clear that the phrase “harmful to society” is still a contentious qualifier.

Via the HuffPo.

I’m very happy to be part of this art and law conference.

On Saturday, February 28, 2015, Yale University will host a major symposium titled The Legal Medium: New Encounters of Art and Law. A very interesting group of individuals will gather to engage in a series of panels, presentations, and discussions.

Rather than focusing on the practice of art law, this symposium will examine law as an artistic medium, in and from which artists create. It will focus on how artists encounter, take advantage of and seek to mold law.

Speakers:

Amy Adler, Jack Balkin, Tania Bruguera, Mary Ellen Carroll, Joshua Decter, Keller Easterling, Liam Gillick, Kenny Goldsmith, Tehching Hsieh, David Joselit, Robert Post, Robert Storr, Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento, Doris Sommer, & Laura Wexler

If you’re in the area don’t miss it. Still plenty of time to register for it, and it’s free to the public.

Siegelaub’s “Artist’s Reserved Rights…” Agreement.

At a talk last Thursday at the Princeton Club, New York Representative Jerrold Nadler didn’t mince words as to why Christie’s and Sotheby’s are against resale royalties for visual artists,

“So, I would argue that their concern is not so much with the details of the bill (although they may want you to think that), but with the whole concept to begin with. And on that front, we are just going to disagree. They are the ones out of step with the rest of the world, not us. We stand with the artists, while they stand with the collectors.”

According to artnet news’ Brian Boucher,

Christie’s said that it cannot support the bill because the number of working artists who would benefit is too small, the beneficiaries are already successful, and galleries and dealers ought to be subject to the law as well.

So basically, and as it concerns artists, the auction houses argue that no one will purchase unknown artists works and those artists that are being bought at auction are already rich enough.

At the risk of sounding cynical, this is why we love the so-called artworld. Everyone, and I do mean E…V…E…R…Y…O…N…E, is for supporting artists except when it’s time to be for artists rights. I wonder if these are the same people that voted for Obama and applauded Obama Care–you know, kind of like those luminaries over at Harvard.

And for copyright infringement, no less. Wait, wasn’t it the same Associated Press that hauled Shepard Fairey into court for…wait for it, wait for it…copyright infringement?

Via the Artnewspaper,

Artists in the US could have less than a year left to freely use drones in their work. Although current flight restrictions apply only to commercial, not artistic, use of drones, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is working on new regulations that are due to be submitted to Congress by September.

On Tuesday, Universal Music filed a lawsuit against a group of companies including the Centric Group and Keefe Group alleged to be selling “care packages” that family members and friends can send to inmates who are incarcerated in correctional facilities.

Among the items being sent to prisoners, according to a complaint filed in California federal court, are mixtapes featuring performances by artists like James Brown, Eminem, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.

Nicholas O’Donnell updates us on the status of the (previously) pending resale royalty bill,

Nadler introduced a resale royalty bill in 2011, but it failed to become law.  Last year, on the heels of a Copyright Office recommendation to enact resale royalty legislation, Nadler introduced the Resale Royalties Too Act of 2014.  He gave an impassioned defense of the idea at the Appraisers Association of America’s Art Law Day at NYU in November, and it briefly appeared headed for a vote, but with the turn of the calendar page this version too is now void.  Will he, or others, try again?