Thursday, March 28, 2024
 


Spain to Apply Resale Rights


According to EL PAÍS, Spain’s Minister of Culture announced today that pending approved modification to their intellectual property laws, Spanish artists may yet acquire what is known in France as droit de suite or, resale rights. Approved by the European Parliament in September 2001, resale rights have already been in effect in other European countries but with inconsistent results. EL PAÍS reports that Spain is trying to comply with this European resale right which applies to diverse artistic media such as painting, collage, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, tapestries, ceramics, crystal, photography, and video art. The resale right fee would apply to any real person or legal entity who habitually sells art within the art market, such as galleries, auction houses, and agents. The applicable resale fee would vary depending on the resale price: a minimum .25% would be charged when the first resale price surpasses 500,000 euros, and a maximum 4% when the first resale price surpasses 50,000 euros. The maximum fee assessed would be 12,500 euros, and the applicable fee would always be paid by the buyer.

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Hello Copy Kat!


Donn Zaretsky has an interesting story regarding Tom Sachs and his Hello Kitty sculptures. It seems that Sachs’ sculptures, located in front of the Lever House in midtown Manhattan, infringe the intellectual property rights of Hello Kitty’s owner, Sanrio (note their handbag series…a knockoff of Murakami and LV?). However, New York Magazine reports that so far they’re ok with this type of infringement because after all, there really is no difference between Sachs’ gesture and that of Warhol or Koons. So what’s the point right?

hkittysolo.JPG
(Don’t go infringing this photo…Clancco owns the copyright to it!)

Anyhow, finding ourselves intrigued, we sent a Clancco intern to take a look at these Hello Kitty sculptures and shoot some images for us and for those that don’t find themselves in the Gotham City vicinity (click below for the images). Being a new intern, Ms. Valencia surprised us with her mental acuity by capturing an interesting shot of the back of one of Sachs’ Lever House sculptures, emblazoned with copyright and accreditation language. Very nice!

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Ironic Infringement


Interesting story in today’s NY Times regarding fashion designers and their plea for copyright protection. Dana Foley and Anna Corinna, two ex-flea-marketers turned millionaire fashionistas are a bit upset that other designers, primarily Forever 21, are “copying” their designs (what they call “knockoffs”) and selling them at much lower prices (at times 10% of the Foley & Corinna price). The irony my friends is this, that Foley & Corinna itself grew into a million dollar enterprise based on employing “knockoff” strategies or, what we’d like to call, artistic inspiration.

“But Ms. Corinna has an eye for vintage fashion, and Ms. Foley is intuitive about how to make new versions of those styles for modern women. For those reasons customers — and knockoff artists — have sought them out.”

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“If you want to go ahead and create an orphan work, be my guest!” (Update)


Lawrence Lessig weighs in on the current debate regarding the pending Orphan Works bill in Congress. In a NY Times op-ed from May 20, 2008, Lessig writes: “Congress is considering a major reform of copyright law intended to solve the problem of ‘orphan works’ — those works whose owner cannot be found. This “reform” would be an amazingly onerous and inefficient change, which would unfairly and unnecessarily burden copyright holders with little return to the public.”

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“I am 100% convinced it is a Vincent van Gogh”


What could be a third portrait of Vincent van Gogh’s physician is currenlty stashed in a bank vault in Athens. It is believed this could be the last painting van Gogh produced, according to some art experts and collectors who are attempting to determine the authenticity of the picture found among the possessions of a Greek world war two resistance fighter.

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Rauschenberg’s Death Ends Lawsuit


If you were keeping track of Robert Rauschenberg’s VARA lawsuits, Donn Zaretsky updates us on how his untimely and sad death has brought these lawsuits to an end.

 

Mickey Mouse Earns Curator Criminal Charges


Russian prosecutors have summoned Yuri Samodurov, director of the Sakharov Museum in Moscow, to a hearing Tuesday, where he will be charged for his role in organizing the March 2007 exhibition, “Forbidden Art – 2006.” The charges stem from an investigation that was opened shortly after the exhibition debuted into whether Samodurov had incited religious hatred by displaying pornography-infused art works, some mocking the Russian Orthodox Church. The exhibition featured several alleged controversial works, including one depicting Christian worshipers praying to Mickey Mouse instead of Jesus Christ and another with a Russian general raping a male soldier next to the words “Glory to Russia!” More on this from the International Herald Tribune.

 
 
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