Images at issue. Brought to you by Azmina Jasani and Emelyne Peticca, who believe that if "the Warhol [v. Goldsmith] case is any indication, [Richard] Prince has an uphill battle to prove that he made fair use of [Donald] Graham’s image." Jasani and Peticca point out one other aspect of note re: the Second Circuit's amended decision: The Second Circuit concluded that “just as artists must pay for their paint, canvas, neon tubes, marble, film, or digital cameras, if they choose to incorporate the existing copyrighted expression of other artists in ways that draw the original work’s purpose and character . ...
One of the practices that has generated a sizeable number of disputes and rulings is the use of photos to illustrate articles. There is no shortage of articles being generated online, and often those content producers simply canvass the web to find a suitable photo. These three cases address fair use in this context. A very good article by Venkat Balasubramani on the ever-present question.
APPLICATIONS FOR THE NEXT TERM ARE NOW BEING ACCEPTED. The deadline for submitting your application for the next term is November 30, 2021. At this time, given recent Covid developments, we are hoping to do the next term in-person during a three-day weekend intensive. In addition, we have yet to confirm (1) whether this three-day weekend intensive will take place this fall or in the spring of 2022, and (2) whether this three-day weekend intensive will take place in New York City or in Austin, Texas. One other item: the Program is going through some seminal changes. In particular, ...
A Massachusetts judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a woman claiming that she, not Harvard University, is the rightful owner of haunting images of an enslaved father and daughter who she says were her ancestors.
More here.
For those that are still in awe of copyright infringement cases, here’s an update on the Koons/Pompidou/Pig controversy. In brief, Koons and the Pompidou lost the appeal and won themselves an increase in monetary awards due to the photographer of the girl/pig image. As of this moment, Koons still displays the image of the pig and girl on his website.
Great article by Lauren van Haaften-Schick on the artists’ contract.
In March 1971, a broadside boldly labelled The Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement rolled off an independent press in New York. Across the poster’s front was a manifesto by Seth Siegelaub, the innovative conceptual art curator-publisher and former dealer, outlining ‘some generally acknowledged inequities in the art world’. Its verso, drafted by the young lawyer Robert Projansky, contained 19 clauses in heavy-handed legalese promising to remedy those ills.
Did it, or does it, work?
Detecting art forgeries is hard and expensive. Art historians might bring a suspect work into a lab for infrared spectroscopy, radiometric dating, gas chromatography, or a combination of such tests. AI, it turns out, doesn’t need all that: it can spot a fake just by looking at the strokes used to compose a piece.
More here.
I bit flippant, I know. But see the post below. Here we have yet another guerrilla-style “artist” attempting to use intellectual property to safeguard his assets. How Che Guevara!
Don’t necessarily agree with this Bloomberg article on the pipedream belief that artists can, or should, change social ills through legal action. As the cliche goes, careful what you wish for. More law only means more regulation and, moreover, an increased reliance on a structure that may be betting against you. But there you have it. Should be good for all the aspiring art lawyers out there.
Finding in favour of Phillips Auctioneers LLC, Hon. Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York dismissed JN Contemporary Art LLC’s complaint against Phillips, holding that (i) “[i]t cannot be seriously disputed that the COVID-19 pandemic is a natural disaster”; and (ii) Phillips, therefore, did not breach its consignment and guarantee agreement with JN Contemporary when it invoked the force majeure provision[1] in the agreement to terminate the parties’ relationship.
The ruling is under appeal.
More here.
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