Copyright Law

Salander News

Posted on May 13, 2010
Bloomberg's Philip Boroff reports that a group of works from the bankrupt Salander-O'Reilly Galleries will be sold at Christie's on June 9. The works are ones "that creditors haven?t claimed or for which claims have been resolved by [the] bankruptcy court" and each comes with title insurance supplied by ARIS Title...

"Last year, ... the lead guitarist for Metallica bought Mr. Frazetta?s cover artwork for ... 'Conan the Conqueror' for $1 million"

Posted on May 12, 2010
Comic book artist Frank Frazetta died on Monday, and Bruce Weber's NYT obituary includes, at the very end, an update on the family feud over his work:"After [his wife's] death [last year], her children became embroiled in a custodial dispute over their father?s work, and in December, Frank Jr...

More on the Poster Boy Jail Sentence

Posted on May 12, 2010
The NYT's Kate Taylor explains how street artist Poster Boy turned a plea deal to perform community service into an 11-month prison sentence. Apparently the key was not showing up for a court date last Thursday. "His lawyer, Kerry Gotlib, said he got the date confused...

Park West Dropped

Posted on May 12, 2010
By Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Background here.

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Artist Pension Trust Update

Posted on May 11, 2010
The Art Newspaper checks in on the Artist Pension Trust, now in its seventh year. I described it here as a kind of 401(k) plan for artists. According to the article, 1,100 artists have signed up, and it has a collection of more than 4,500 works. Each artist contributes 20 works (over 20 years), with a minimum market value of $5,000 per work...

Linkage

Posted on May 11, 2010
11 month jail sentence for Poster Boy.Photography, Copyright, Plagiarism, and the Internet.The Forger and the Fence.

"In short, we suspect the not-so-clever tax planning doesn?t work"

Posted on May 09, 2010
The Charity Governance Blog's Jack Siegel on the NYT story earlier this week on the Museum of Sex.

"I wanted to know why somebody would find it compelling enough to spend thousands of real dollars to sort of own that concept"

Posted on May 09, 2010
Caleb Larsen's "Tool to Deceive and Slaughter" (discussed earlier here) makes it to the pages of the New York Times Magazine.

All Your Picasso Are Belong To Us

Posted on May 07, 2010
The Guardian's Jonathan Jones thinks the $106M Picasso sale is a "tragedy." His piece is headlined "Locking our Picasso away," with a sub-head indicating that "we are robbed unless it is kept on public display" (my emphases). He says "what has happened here is a theft of world culture, art history and beauty from we, the people, by the super-rich...

Linkage

Posted on May 07, 2010
Michael Kimmelman on the cultural patrimony wars.Resale royalty debate in Australia. (Related post here.)Teaching art in prisons.Proposed decrease in NEA budget.Was Sotheby's briefly worth 6.8 trillion dollars yesterday?

Is that brushed-steel bondage machine held in the public trust?

Posted on May 05, 2010
Because its donor did get an income tax deduction.Related thoughts (about the public trust and how something gets in it, not about bondage machines) here.

Minor Update

Posted on May 05, 2010
In a WSJ piece on auction house "no-bid lists," Kelly Crow includes the following updates on Halsey Minor's lawsuits with Sotheby's and Christie's:1. "[I]n March, a judge in U.S. District Court in New York City ruled in Sotheby's favor, ordering Mr. Minor to pay the auction house $6...

"If no one noticed for years that these were photocopies ? and no one minded ? why were they any less valuable than the originals?"

Posted on May 04, 2010
Claire Berlinski on a philosophical problem raised by art forgery.

"One would think that by now Shepard Fairey would have a lawyer on retainer"

Posted on May 04, 2010
Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento on Shepard Fairey's latest legal problem, this time involving city permit requirements. More from Kate Taylor in the NYT.

We Demand That You Not Close the Museum You Are Not Closing (a continuing series)

Posted on May 03, 2010
The Brandeis Hoot's Ariel Wittenberg reports that the Rose Art Museum has announced a new show for the fall, called "Atmospheric Conditions" and featuring the works of Eric Fischl, April Gornik, and Bill Viola. More here.Related post here.

Salinger Reversal

Posted on May 03, 2010
The Second Circuit has vacated and remanded the District Court's decision in the Catcher in the Rye "sequel" case because the lower court applied the wrong preliminary injunction standard. The opinion mostly stays away from the underlying merits, but, near the end (see p...

"We're helping out artists while building a cultural inheritance for the country"

Posted on April 28, 2010
In Mexico, artists can pay their income taxes with artwork.

Sweet and Sour

Posted on April 28, 2010
Ed Winkleman has an interesting piece in The Art Newspaper calling for the adoption in New York of a droit de suite regime, which would entitle artists to claim royalties on resales of their work by initial (or subsequent) purchasers. He argues that this would reduce "resentment over extraordinary profits" by collectors, which in turn would lead to fewer "unnecessary secrets" in the art market...

"There are all kinds of ways the state can support the art world. This doesn't strike me as a very good one"

Posted on April 28, 2010
Michael Rushton makes a convincing case against Mexico's policy of letting (certain) artists pay their taxes with artwork.

Linkage

Posted on April 28, 2010
Roman sculptures pulled from auction.Jersey City Museum on the brink.NYCLU opposes proposed rules limiting art sales in City parks.Guilty plea in fake Picasso case.Leading art fabricator Carlson & Co. is closing."The 'fair use economy' is enormous, growing, and endangered by the relatively tiny entertainment industry...

Pole Dancing Is Not Art

Posted on April 27, 2010
N.Y. Tax Appeals Panel Rules.

Linkage

Posted on April 26, 2010
"Art Finance Partners demands $300,000, plus punitive damages, from Wally Findlay Galleries International, claiming it sold the consigned painting ... but didn't deliver the money."Inquest begins in public art tragedy.Why are nonprofits exempt from the property tax?20-25% of charities to lose their tax-exempt status on May 15...

" . . . providing merely an equitable basis to permit some copying of the owner?s expression that are not harmful to the copyright owner"

Posted on April 24, 2010
Raymond Nimmer: Has the worm turned on transformative use?

"A park without art is like eating spaghetti without spaghetti sauce"

Posted on April 24, 2010
The New York Times has a report on yesterday's public hearing on the proposal to limit the number of art-sellers in City parks.

"By most accounts Mr. Young never paid much attention to his finances . . ."

Posted on April 24, 2010
" . . . and in his last years he became involved in a tangled legal battle with a former manager, Martin Siskind, whom Mr. Young sued for mismanaging funds. Mr. Siskind successfully petitioned a judge to have Mr. Young declared mentally incompetent, and his affairs were placed in the control of legal guardians...

Twist in the Stolen Rockwell Case

Posted on April 22, 2010
Tom Flynn reports that Art Loss Register, which acted on behalf of Jack Solomon in his dispute with Judy Cutler over a stolen Rockwell painting, plans to sue Solomon. ALR wouldn't comment further, but Flynn says "it would appear to be because Solomon failed to apprise them of the full details of the case...

Park West Loss

Posted on April 22, 2010
After a six-week trial, a jury found in favor of the Fine Art Registry in its lawsuit against Park West Galleries. They rejected Park West's defamation claims, and awarded Fine Art Registry $500,000 on a Lanham Act claim stemming from "Park West's use of a Fine Art Registry trademark in sponsored links on search engines, to drive Internet user queries to a Park West reputation management page online...

"Institutions have to change in order to survive"

Posted on April 22, 2010
The Atlantic: Are Fine Art Museums the Next Starbucks?

Linkage

Posted on April 21, 2010
What are the optimal jurisdictional arrangements for arts policy?What is Justice Stevens's IP legacy?On quantifying the stolen art business. (And here.)Protest planned against proposed rules limiting art vendors in City parks.An exhibition of fakes.

Polaroid Collection Update

Posted on April 20, 2010
The Art Newspaper has the latest on "the last-gasp campaign to stop the sale of works from the Polaroid Collection." Apparently 56 artists have signed on to be plaintiffs in a motion for a rehearing "which campaigners hope to file" in Minnesota bankruptcy court...

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