Thursday, March 28, 2024
 


Department of Homeland Security Removes Architectural Structure


Fear of terrorist attacks has forced The Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBPA) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to take down part of an architectural structure. The structural complex, designed by the New York firm of Smith-Miller & Hawkinson, opened just a few weeks ago and was initially approved by the CBPA.

“There were security concerns,” said Kelly Ivahnenko, a spokeswoman for the customs agency. “The sign could be a huge target and attract undue attention. Anything that would place our officers at risk we need to avoid.”

Nicolai Ouroussoff has more in today’s NY TImes here. Although I am in general agreement with Ouroussoff, he seems to forget that government agencies, particularly those with national security concerns, do not have the liberty to play with human lives, especially those of their employees. Furthermore, the CBPA may have a solid reason for this decision, and one which the general population, including Ouroussoff, may not be privy to.

 

“Oh boy, I hope they don’t find us”


We covered this story a month ago, and it seems like it’s not losing steam. Today, the WSJ reported that although there may be a settlement regarding The Little Mermaid conflict between a small Michigan town and the Artist’s Rights Society, other small U.S. towns may be facing similar copyright infringement claims.

Among them is Kimballton, Iowa. After giving their location, a local is quoted by the WSJ as saying, “Oh boy, I hope they don’t find us.” Good luck!

 

Photographer Moves to Intervene in AP v. Shepard Fairey Case (update)


According to Ray Beckerman, Manny Garcia, the now famous photographer who shot the original Obama photograph while presumably working for the Associated Press has not only claimed that he owns the copyright to this photograph, but more importantly, has now changed his mind and concluded that Fairey did in fact infringe Garcia’s copyright. Garcia’s main claim is that he was in fact not an employee of the AP, but rather an independent contractor who never assigned the copyrights to his photographs to the AP.

A note of interest. Garcia is being represented by Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, who have also represented Al Gore and the United States in the United States v. Microsoft and Bush v. Gore cases. According to Chambers and Partners:

The firm’s clients include some of the largest and most sophisticated companies in the world: Altria, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, Barclays, CBS, C.V. Starr, Delta Air Lines, DuPont, Ernst & Young, Florida Power & Light, Goldman Sachs, Lloyds of London,NASCAR,New York Life Insurance Company, Philip Morris International, Plainfield Asset Management, Qwest Communications, Sony Corporation, The New York Yankees, Tudor Investment, Tyco International,Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network and Zurich Capital Markets.

You can read Garcia’s memorandum asking the court to consider him a defendant, and listing his counter-claims and cross-claims, PDF format, here.

Update: July 24, 2009

On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, approved Garcia’s motion to intervene in the AP v. Shepard Fairey lawsuit. According to Editor & Publisher, “[b]oth Garcia and the AP have registered the photograph with the U.S. copyright office, and Fairey has registered his posters as well. There are other factual disagreements between the parties that remain unresolved, including which of Garcia’s photographs Fairey used. The parties are now performing factual discovery, and the judge has scheduled the next court conference for Nov. 20.”

 

Killer Website Won’t Face Charges


Manitoba’s Justice Department has decided a website that promotes paintings by a convicted killer who cut up his victim in a hotel bathtub does not violate a law that prevents people from profiting from their crimes.

Teerhuis-Moar, 40, was found guilty of second-degree murder last December. His trial was told that he met Greene at a Winnipeg bar and took him to a hotel room, where he cut off his head and penis, removed his internal organs and cut his torso into several pieces, which were left in a bathtub.

The website claims to have several original paintings by Teerhuis-Moar and asks viewers whether the paintings should be sold.

More from the CBC here.

 

Has Sculpture Been Gutted of Copyright Protection?


Korean War Stamp.jpg

On Wednesday, July 15th, The Center for Internet Society filed an amicus on behalf of the Andy Warhol Foundation, and several other amici, including the Warhol Museum; artists Barbara Kruger, Thomas Lawson, Jonathan Monk, and Allen Ruppersberg; and a few law professors.

Read the rest of this entry »

 

Hitler-Saluting Gnome Ignites Controversy


Ohm.gnome.jpg

German prosecutors in Nuremberg have launched an investigation into whether an artist’s 14-inch tall gnome giving a stiff-armed Hitler salute violates the country’s strict laws against the use of Nazi symbols and Hitler salutes.

The creator of the exhibition, art professor Ottmar Hörl, told DPA of his shock at the reaction to his work. “I am completely stunned,” he said. “In 1942 it would have been the Nazis massacring me because of this piece.”

Spiegel Online has more.

 

Salander Faces Another Indictment


Lawrence Salander, a former New York City art gallery owner already facing a 100-count indictment, was indicted again Tuesday for allegedly defrauding his clients for $5 million.

Prosecutors said …Salander, the former owner of Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, defrauded his clients, many of whom were close friends, in what will turn out to be a scheme amounting to more than $100 million. The alleged crimes charged in Tuesday’s indictment occurred between October 1997 and November 2007.

 
 
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