Like a bad 1980s movie, the most infamous copyright decicion of the year has now spawned a sequel. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has been considering since early March whether to rehear en banc its decision in favor of Cindy Lee Garcia concerning her performance in the movie Innocence of Muslims. Plaintiff Cindy Lee… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Fair Use
Subscribe to Fair Use RSS FeedFair Use and Transformativeness Pushback: Seventh Circuit Takes a Swipe at “Lazy Appropriators”
Posted in Copyright, Fair UseMuch ink has been spilled over the new world order seemingly announced by last year’s Second Circuit decision in Prince v. Cariou with regard to copyright, fair use, appropriation art, and “transformativeness.” In a nutshell, while roundly criticized, most commentators have taken the Prince decision to announce the apotheosis of “transformativeness” among the fair use… Continue Reading
The Art Law Report Turns Three: the Training Wheels are Off
Posted in Copyright, Cy Pres, Deaccession, Detroit Bankruptcy, Fair Use, Gurlitt Collection, RestitutionAs I have before, I wanted to mark the third anniversary of this blog since we posted three articles on September 15, 2011. In the last year, you (the reader) have helped the Report grow beyond our most optimistic hopes. We have done our best to cover significant events like the Gurlitt saga and restitution issues, the… Continue Reading
Just Kidding? Celebrity Hacked Photograph Exhibition Scuttled
Posted in Copyright, Fair UseHaving presumably gotten all of us to take the bait, appropriation artist XVALA has backed off and announced that he will not include versions of hacked photographs of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and others, in a show entitled “No Delete.” The show will instead include, apparently, “the artist’s self-shot, life-size, nude images.” So, there’s that. … Continue Reading
Can Copyright Aid Kate Upton, Jennifer Lawrence, and Other Victims of Celebrity Photo Hack?
Posted in Copyright, Fair UseAs anyone with a computer now knows, the story broke last week of a supposed cache of hundreds of intimate photographs of numerous celebrities, including Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence, and Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander. Over the course of the week, rumors circulated about who, exactly, had them, and whether or where they would… Continue Reading
“Dumb Starbucks” Epilogue: Comedy Central Airs “Nathan For You” Episode Behind it All, Explores Parody, Commerce, and Visual Art
Posted in Copyright, Fair UseReaders will recall the strange case of “Dumb Starbucks” earlier this year, which initially seemed to pose the question of whether a coffee shop that transparently used the marks and copyrights of Starbucks could claim fair use as an art gallery. It turned out that the entire performance was just that, a lead up to… Continue Reading
Art Law This Week at the City Bar: “Copyright Fair Use: The Importance of Being Transformative” and “Hot Topics in Art Law 2014”
Posted in Authentication, Consignment, Copyright, Fair Use, RestitutionLooking forward to two great art and law events this week at the New York City Bar, both at 42 West 44th Street. Hope to see many of you there! On Tuesday March 11, 2014 from 6:30-8:30 p.m., Judith Prowda, faculty at Sotheby’s Institute and author of Visual Arts and the Law will mediate a… Continue Reading
Now who’s rapping like it’s a commercial? The Beastie Boys counterclaim against GoldieBlox Web advertisement
Posted in Copyright, Fair UseAfter GoldieBlox announced with great fanfare that it would withdraw its claim seeking a declaratory judgment that its use in a video of the Beastie Boys song “Girls” was a fair use under the Copyright Act, many assumed that was the end of it and that the only point for discussion was GoldieBlox’s motivation. As… Continue Reading
GoldieBlox Declares a Truce with the Beastie Boys, What was That All About?
Posted in Copyright, Fair UseAfter the skirmish over whether GoldieBlox’s video featuring the melody and parodied lyrics of “Girls” by the Beastie Boys was fair use or infringement, the company abruptly altered the video in question on its website. The same video is now accompanied by different music. The company also issued the following statement on its blog: “We… Continue Reading
GoldieBlox Parodies the Beastie Boys and “Girls”—Fair Use is Clear, What About Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”?
Posted in Copyright, Fair UseCoverage has exploded this week of a dispute between the Beastie Boys and a company called “GoldieBlox,” over the latter’s use of the song “Girls” in a video encouraging engineering and structural play toys for girls. Despite coverage focusing on whether Goldie Box copied the Beastie Boys’ song (which is undisputed, really, and thus beside… Continue Reading
Lauren Clay, the David Smith Estate, David Dodde, and Fair Use: Are We Learning Anything?
Posted in Copyright, Fair Use, Intellectual PropertyA pair of recent disputes over sculpture, fair use and moral rights highlights the ongoing concern that Prince v. Cariou has made things worse, not better. The first concerns the estate of sculptor David Smith, and sculptor Lauren Clay. As Art in America put it, “Clay’s works replicate the shapes of Smith’s large metal ‘Cubi’… Continue Reading
Fair Use and DMCA Take Down—Lawrence Lessig Sues Over YouTube Use of “Lisztomania”
Posted in Copyright, Fair UseOne of the lurking issues in the murky waters of copyright fair use is the takedown notice provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”). The DMCA, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 512, implements two 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization treaties and absolves internet service providers (“ISPs”) who disable allegedly infringing content… Continue Reading
A Primer on Transformativeness: Green Day Proves Fair Use of Image in Concert Video
Posted in Copyright, Fair UseThe Ninth Circuit has ruled in favor of the band Green Day in a copyright case that gives much better guidance on fair use and transformativeness than this year’s earlier Prince v. Cariou Second Circuit case. Despite copying an entire image, in the backdrop of a video that showed onstage at a multi-million dollar concert tour,… Continue Reading
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