A US TV auctioneer who helped to sell $20m in forged art to more than 10,000 customers has been sentenced to five years in prison. Via the BBC.
Images of Goldsmith and Warhol at issue. The U.S. Supreme Court will review a ruling that an Andy Warhol print infringed a copyrighted photograph taken by photographer, Lynn Goldsmith, of the late musician, Prince. We certainly hope--as much as one can hope for anything these days--that SCOTUS cleans up the wasteland that has become of "fair use" interpretation. One would think, and hope I suppose, that with many of the sitting justices adhering to textualism, they will fully jettison the nonsensical "transformativeness" test that has plagued us like a really bad case of Covid since the mid-1990s. Docs here, via ...
Ahh...Youth! Sergio Munoz Sarmiento. (2015 - ongoing), C-Print. © and TM Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento. All rights reserved. I had a lovely conversation with fellow lawyer and artist, Stephanie Drawdy, on the NFT craze, pets, art law, and the origins of The Art & Law Program. You can listen to the Podcast here. Hope you enjoy!
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou, and the Association Marcel Duchamp have digitized their vast archives of material on the Dadaist and placed it online, where it is free to all. Enjoy!
If you have kids at home and want them to do something fun and educational, try the Art & Law Coloring Book, an ongoing project by The Art & Law Program. Really a great collection of drawings by great artists, including: Emma Jane Bloomfield Damien Davis Molly Dilworth João Enxuto Soda Jerk Clare Kambhu Alexandra Lerman Erica Love Douglas Melini Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento Melinda Shades Elisabeth Smolarz Gabriel Sosa Alfred Steiner Valerie Suter Happy coloring!
If you're confused as to what the hell NFTs are, particularly art NFTs, here's a new article by Alfred Steiner that pretty much walks you through and safely out of the NFT hell. In his article, Steiner explains what NFTs are and what it means to own one. He also discusses why that meaning of ownership—which may appear novel to many—isn’t new at all when considered against the backdrop of the market for conceptual art. Steiner concludes with some observations about how NFTs may be good and bad for the art industry.
A US TV auctioneer who helped to sell $20m in forged art to more than 10,000 customers has been sentenced to five years in prison. Via the BBC.
I’ll be on NYC’s WBAI Radio (99.5 FM) on Friday, Nov.5th, speaking with radio host and friend Susan Lee about legal issues for artists. The show is called You and Your Money, and runs from 10:30am to 11am. We’ll be covering a bit of everything: from contracts, corporations, and LLCs, to copyright, contracts, and artist/gallery relationships. You can listen in via web here.
I’ll also be at speaking to The Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law Society (IPELS) of the New York University School of Law tomorrow about art law with law students while enjoying a great lunch and drinks. They’re a super group with intelligent and challenging questions, and always fun and exciting to speak with. Really looking forward to both!
If there is one logo in the world you shouldn’t mess with, it’s the Hells Angels logo. Saks, Zappos, and Alexander McQueen Trading Ltd. don’t seem to agree.
The Hells Angels have sued the three parties above in the Central District of California for trademark infringement, claiming the three parties violate the Hells Angels trademarks by using their name and death’s head on apparel and accessories, like the ring featured above. I’m sure the Angels’ counsel has thought of this, but if they’re using the Angels’ trademark on yuppie apparel, why not add dilution and tarnishment to the claim?
You can read a bit more info on the complaint here. Via Courthouse News Service.
Entrepreneur’s online magazine has a good (and brief) little article on copyright issues and websites. Although it’s not art specific, many artists and art galleries may find this information useful (ie- it’s in layman’s terms). The article also points to a few online tools to ensure that copy on your site doesn’t belong to someone else–and to guard your own intellectual property from non-fair use taking by others. Read the article here.
If you have a few minutes to spare today, the WSJ has a great article on lawyers, engineers, stock analysts, and other left-side people who began new careers as artists. Unfortunately the WSJ seemed to target people post-50, but it’s still worthwhile reading for anyone thinking of doing something more interesting than drafting memos or filling out copyright registration forms.
Prince Sixte-Henri de Bourbon-Parme, a descendant of France’s King Louis XIV, is seeking a court order to halt a radical contemporary exhibition by Takashi Murakami in the royal apartments at Versailles because it sullied “supreme good French taste.”
Via The Independent.
Joe Simon, who filed a federal lawsuit against the Andy Warhol Foundation and its subsidiary Art Authentication Board, says he is withdrawing his lawsuit and bringing it to an end. Simon brought the suit in 2007, challenging the board’s rejection of the authenticity of the 1964 Warhol self-portrait that Simon owns. Simon’s lawyer, Seth Redniss, will withdraw from the case at the next hearing, scheduled for November 10 in federal court in the Southern District of Manhattan. According to Simon, a parallel lawsuit in which Redniss is counsel, filed last year by U.S. collector Susan Shaer after the rejection of a self-portrait from the same series, also will be dropped.
Background info here and here. Artinfo has more here.
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