Artist Shepard Fairey was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and fined $25,000 today in a federal courtroom in Manhattan today for destroying documents, falsifying evidence “and other misconduct” in his civil litigation two years ago against the
Artist Shepard Fairey was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and fined $25,000 today in a federal courtroom in Manhattan today for destroying documents, falsifying evidence “and other misconduct” in his civil litigation two years ago against the Associated Press
Owners of Marilyn Monroe photographs have won a decisive legal victory in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, which has affirmed that Marilyn Monroe heirs have inherited no rights of publicity to the actress’s likeness. The dec
The decision means that Monroe’s heirs cannot control how images of the actress are used commercially, and cannot demand fees whenever those images are licensed for use on calendars, posters, memorabilia, or other products.
Livestream and automated copyright blocking algorithms don’t play very well together; and from the looks of things, the problem is only going to get worse.
As live streaming video surges in popularity, so are copyright “bots” — automated systems that match content against a database of reference files of copyrighted material. These systems can block streaming video in real time, while it is still being broadcast, leading to potentially worrying implications for freedom of speech.
Anyone who has ever rented a movie has probably read the riot act on copyright infringement, which appears under a colorful FBI anti-piracy seal (shown at right) and says this: “The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illega
In making the seal and warning available for use by all copyright holders, the FBI has eliminated fees and administrative requirements. Users can download the seal and post the warning free-of-charge, provided they follow the FBI rules for its use
Starting this week, web sites that have received high numbers of removal notices for unauthorized use of copyrighted content will rank lower in Google’s search results, the search engine giant announced on its Inside Search blog on Friday. Because Google
Muench Photography and Mountain Light Photography have filed a copyright infringement claim against a Las Vegas-based photomontage artist for unauthorized use of two of their photographs. The artist, Thomas Barbèy, creates surrealistic photomontages. Acco
The artist, Thomas Barbèy, creates surrealistic photomontages. According to his Tumblr page, he uses images that he shoots on his travels all over the world. He claims inspiration from René Magritte, M.C. Escher, and Roger Dean, and says, “I’m constantly asked about how I do [the montages], I would like to think that the pictures can be appreciated without any real knowledge of their technical virtuosity. The visionary inspiration and imagination is not a technical skill learned in school but rather to my personal belief a gift from God.”
And theft of other people’s photographs, allegedly.
Google, which displays the book snippets next to advertising on its search engine, claims it has the right under the “fair-use” doctrine to publish parts of each book. The guild told U.S. District Judge District Judge Denny Chin of New York that Google was off-base.
Arguing that its Google Books program makes fair use of copyrighted books by providing an indispensable public service, Google has asked a federal court to dismiss The Authors Guild’s claim that Google is infringing the copyrights of authors on a “massive
“Google’s use of books is fair because it provides vast public benefits without any demonstrated harm to plaintiffs,” Google asserts in its motion, filed in US District Court in New York City on July 27. (Emphasis is Google’s.)
A federal appeals court has upheld a decision to dismiss a lawsuit against Corbis by actress Shirley Jones, who charged that the photo agency violated her rights of publicity by marketing images of her without permission. The appeals court also refused to
Jones originally sued Corbis in November, 2010, arguing that by offering images of Jones for license on its web site, the agency was making commercial use of her likeness without her permission, in violation of California state law.
Scott Blake is a computer artist who created a Photoshop plug-in called th “Chuck Close Filter,” which transformed images into mosaics reminiscent of the famous hand-made mosaics create…
Scott Blake is a computer artist who created a Photoshop plug-in called th “Chuck Close Filter,” which transformed images into mosaics reminiscent of the famous hand-made mosaics created by Chuck Close, whom Blake calls “the 14th richest living artist.” Close objected to the filter, and threatened legal action, so Blake complied; although Blake believes that what he’s made is legal under the doctrine of fair use, he can’t afford to litigate against a multimillionaire adversary.
Photographers who post their work online run the inherent risk of having their work stolen. But stolen by another photographer? Come on, that’s just disgraceful. Now one Tumblr user has decided to put these photo-stealing photographers to shame, by public
The blog named stopstealingphotos.tumblr.com speaks for itself. “Photo Stealers”, as it’s officially named, is a self-proclaimed wall of shame “dedicated to photographers that feel that it’s okay to steal other’s work and post it as their own.”
The American government’s bid to extradite copyright infringement king Kim Dotcom to the United States was dealt a body blow Thursday, when a New Zealand High Court judge ruled that the raids on Doctom’s home earlier this year were “illegal.” The decision
The American government’s bid to extradite copyright infringement king Kim Dotcom to the United States was dealt a body blow Thursday, when a New Zealand High Court judge ruled that the raids on Doctom’s home earlier this year were “illegal.” The decision may doom the entire prosecution of the founder of the file-sharing site Megaupload; New Zealand authorities are appealing.
The Internet has been abuzz with Emily White, a intern at NPR, and her article about how she has never bought music and probably never will. and the response from David Lowery of Camper Van Beethov…
The Internet has been abuzz with Emily White, a intern at NPR, and her article about how she has never bought music and probably never will. and the response from David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. Lowery’s response is a powerful piece of writing, and contains some valuable insights into what the old music industry did well, but it’s also a mess
Maybe paying something might be a nice way to support an artist whose work one has enjoyed, mostly for free, for such a long time? Because, let’s face it, even though the Grover Norquists of the world would deny this, there is more to this issue than just money. There is the question of worth – the non-monetary kind.
I’ve been following with considerable interest the whole Emily White furor. The nutshell version: an NPR intern named Emily White admitted that she has more than 11,000 songs on her iPod but has only ever paid for 15 CDs. This…
the main thing, to me, is that it’s usually the carrier, and how it can be monetized, and how the proceeds are divided, that matters; and, in my view, the particular circumstances of the carrier in each case is essentially arbitrary, almost random, depending on some transitory state of technology and on the greater or lesser effectiveness of the business model, the rules (laws, customs, and contracts) that are in place, and the state of competition
Emily White writes, with chagrin: “As monumental a role as musicians and albums have played in my life, I’ve never invested money in them aside from concert tickets and T-shirts.” Some musicians have taken her to task.
In the NPR post, a 20-year-old intern named Emily White wrote that despite being “an avid music listener, concertgoer and college radio D.J.,” with an iTunes library of 11,000 songs, she has bought only 15 CDs in her life. “As monumental a role as musicians and albums have played in my life,” she wrote, “I’ve never invested money in them aside from concert tickets and T-shirts.”
Ms. White went on to describe some typical Gen-Y behaviors about acquiring digital music: ripping CDs; copying friends’ song files; being given 15 gigabytes of music by a prom date. Curiously, she noted that aside from “a few” tracks that she obtained through the now-defunct file-sharing service Kazaa, most were not “illegally” downloaded.
“I went home at 3am and I opened the BBC page, which had a front page story about what happened in Syria, and I almost felt off from my chair,” Marco di Lauro told the Telegraph. “One of my pictures from Iraq was used by the BBC web site as a front page illustration claiming that those were the bodies of yesterday’s massacre in Syria and that the picture was sent by an activist.”
As we’ve reported in our coverage of photographer Patrick Cariou’s infringement claim against Richard Prince, Prince and his defenders argue that appropriation art does little harm to individuals from whom appropriation artists steal their raw materials.
As we’ve reported in our coverage of photographer Patrick Cariou’s infringement claim against Richard Prince, Prince and his defenders argue that appropriation art does little harm to individuals from whom appropriation artists steal their raw materials. Their implied question: Where would civilization be without the great works of appropriation artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg?
Photographer Daniel Morel, who had his exclusive Haiti earthquake images ripped off by Agence France-Presse and Getty more than two years ago, has released more evidence in his claim against the two wire services in his ongoing fight for justice. The new
