The start of a new year means new entries into the public domain. Today is Public Domain Day, and as we did in 2012 and 2013, we’re taking a look at the artistic additions.
copyright
Posted inNews
Cariou v. Prince Isn’t Over: Orgs Rep’ing 45,000 Creatives File Brief in Support of Cariou
Contrary to what we thought, the art law blog Clancco has found out that the infamous Cariou v. Prince copyright case is far from over. The organizations involved in this new “friend of the court” brief represent roughly 45,000 members and 100 companies in the fields of photography, the graphic arts, and media.
Posted inNews
Copyright Laws Are a-Changin’ (Maybe) in the US and EU
The arena of copyright is a global morass of collaboration, appropriation, and theft. Rights management is a nightmare for artists and a cash machine for the legal profession, but two recent developments, one in the United States and the other in the European Union, aim, respectively, to expand the scope of royalties and streamline process by which rights and permissions are transacted.
Posted inOpinion
What Happens When Literature Enters the Public Domain?
“Work that fails to enter a canon — literary, historical, or otherwise — tends to languish on the dustier shelves of college libraries. Digitization allows a new generation of scholars to look at them with fresh regard.”
Posted inNews
Getty Museum Sets 4,600 Images Free
Yesterday, the J. Paul Getty Trust announced that they will be “making roughly 4,600 high-resolution images of the Museum’s collection free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose.”
Posted inNews
Totally Uncool Jokers: Barbara Kruger’s Conceptual Comeback to Supreme Lawsuit
Earlier this month, Complex covered Supreme’s hitting Leah McSweeney of clothing line Married to the MOB with a $10 million lawsuit for copyright infringement, as McSweeney did a parody of the streetwear label’s logo as “Supreme Bitch.” Rightly, Complex wondered what the conceptual artist who inspired the logo in the first place thought about it, namely Barbara Kruger with her red and white sans serif text work. Here’s her response.
Posted inOpinion
UK’s New “Instagram Act” Stretches Copyright to Its Breaking Point
The UK has passed a new act that has photographers and other creators worried about maintaining ownership of their images. The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act theoretically aims to make it easier for companies to publish orphan works, which are images and other content whose author or copyright can’t be identified. But whereas in the past, orphan works were often out-of-print books and historical unattributed photos, today millions of images are quickly orphaned online, as they move from Instagram to Twitter to Facebook to Tumblr without attribution along the way.
Posted inArt
Judicial Activism and the Return of Modernism in the Cariou v. Prince Decision
The Cariou v. Prince decision was handed down last Thursday. I have struggled with what to write primarily because I have been shocked into a catatonic state. How two intelligent minds could draft such an epic disaster is beyond any form of comprehension.
Posted inArt
Richard Prince: Back in Black!
Wednesday night, a decision by a three-judge appellate court panel marked a turnaround in the closely watched copyright infringement case Cariou v. Prince, pitting photographer Patrick Cariou against art star Richard Prince. Hyperallergic consults intellectual property expert Peter Friedman on the new outcome, with further exclusive commentary from Cariou’s attorney.
Posted inOpinion
Will the UK’s New Design Copyright Law Kill Innovation?
Patrick Cariou’s lawsuit against artist Richard Prince for wrongfully appropriating his photographs of Rastafarians into new artworks provided a benchmark for the role of copyright in contemporary art, though the case is still being debated in appeals. But how do those same issues impact the world of design, where knockoffs of iconic designs are omnipresent and it’s even more difficult to tell when inspiration becomes appropriation, and appropriation becomes infringement? Later this year, the British government plans on extending the copyright term for design, stretching the protected period from 25 years from when the creation was first marketed to 70 years after the death of the object’s creator. Could that policy impact the creative dynamism of design in the U.K.?
Posted inOpinion
Happy Public Domain Day!
Continuing a tradition we began last year, we’d like to wish you not just Happy New Year today, but also Happy Public Domain Day!
Posted inNews
In Bizarre Turn of Events, Beast Jesus Maker Demands Royalties
In what can only be described as the most unbelievable turn of events around the Beast Jesus debacle, Techdirt says the woman at the center of the global sensation is claiming copyright and wants a cut of the tourist money bonanza that has hit the small Spanish church.
