Images at issue. We conclude … that all four factors favor [Lynn] Goldsmith and that [Warhol’s] Prince Series works are not fair use as a matter of law. We further conclude that the Prince Series works are substantially similar to the Goldsmith Photograph as a matter of law. Here's my take. The 2nd Cir ruled that if the secondary work serves the same purpose as the first, in our case, both as works of visual art, and if the dominant component of the copyrighted works remains in the secondary work, then there is no transformativeness. This ruling is devastating to some art folk ...
If you're still lost as to what the fundamentals of NFTs are, I explain it here in an art & law essay from 2008, including how NFT's are really not anything new but rather just another property right, albeit one that could revolutionize art.
After hearing that Metro Pictures gallery would close at the end of this year, I woke this morning thinking of an interview I did with artist and dean of the CalArts School of Arts, Tom Lawson, almost 15 years ago, which contains Lawson's poignant thoughts on the origins of Metro Pictures.
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?
Don't miss this interesting panel on a new book concerning Seth Siegelaub and his very own "writings—one of the projects for which he never found the time, busy as he was running his global one-man operation. Edited by a group of researchers and curators who each collaborated with Siegelaub, the book brings together his personal notes, public interviews, and precious few published writings into one volume, offering unprecedented insight into the many facets of his inquisitive life." Panel includes Lauren van Haaften-Schick, Jo Melvin, and James Hoff. More info on this event here.
Rarely do I agree with pompous and elderly aromatic Rob Storr, but this time I do. “I also distrust academic Marxists because they have never done any real politics at all, so they don’t know that danger.” God bless!
Don’t miss this interesting panel on a new book concerning Seth Siegelaub and his very own “writings—one of the projects for which he never found the time, busy as he was running his global one-man operation. Edited by a group of researchers and curators who each collaborated with Siegelaub, the book brings together his personal notes, public interviews, and precious few published writings into one volume, offering unprecedented insight into the many facets of his inquisitive life.”
Panel includes Lauren van Haaften-Schick, Jo Melvin, and James Hoff. More info on this event here.
Our good friend, Dave Steiner, gives us a good recap of recent copyright and trademark legislation.
Interestingly, in regard to the Copyright (Small) Claims Board, Steiner writes,
Participating in a procedure before the CCB is voluntary—a respondent may opt out of a procedure originally brought before the CCB. In that event, the CCB must dismiss the proceeding without prejudice, which presumably would force the claimant to file a case in district court. Although other consequences of opting out are not yet clear, we would expect that doing so may lead to larger damages awards and increase the probability of an award of attorneys’ fees for a claimant who prevails over a respondent who has opted out.
Recently we’ve read about Stevie Nicks, Bob Dylan, Lindsey Buckingham selling all or part of their music rights. Add Neil Young to the list.
According to Bloomberg News, Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd. bought 50% of the rights to folk and rock songwriter Neil Young’s discography
It’s public domain time. Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain has a very thorough, funny and witty article on what works are now in the public domain and free for use in the United States. Included in this list is one of my favorite artworks of all-time, Joan Miró’s The Birth of the World, from 1925.
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