The U.S. Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress announced six new exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Digital Rights Management (DRM)  measures stating, “Persons making noninfringing uses of the following [...] classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) until the conclusion of the [...]

Two boxes of unknown Ansel Adams slides worth $200 million+ A decade ago, Rick Norsigian, of Fresno, CA purchased two boxes of glass slides at  a garage sale for $45 — unbeknown to Norsigian, the boxes contained 65 early glass negatives created by Ansel Adams. Thought to have been destroyed in a 1937 studio fire, [...]

Daniel Grant wrote an interesting post about the importance of diligent recordkeeping. Grant discusses the difficulties multimedia sculptor Nam June Paik (1932-2006) faced in the twilight of his career. After suffering a debilitating stroke in 1996, Paik encountered a number of lawsuits surrounding the authenticity of certain works. Had Paik kept documentary records, Grant notes, [...]

I meant to write about this some time ago when I stumbled across this post from Le geek c’est chic. Ciara notes that GreenGraffiti uses reverse graffiti to serve advertisements — while maintaining a carbon neutral footprint. “With the help of a template and a high pressure water sprayer an advertising message is cleaned out [...]

The Art Newspaper ran an interesting blurb about works of art stored in the basement of the Vancouver Art Gallery. A member of the museum’s acquisitions committee recently noted that pot smoke from frequent pro-marijuana events may be damaging the contemporary collection — not so, claims the museum’s director.

On July10th 2010, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) celebrated its 20th Anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, EFF released the following short animation by cartoonist and free culture activist Nina Paley: More from EFF.

The grand-niece of a United States soldier who stole 11 paintings following World War II is returning them to a museum in Pirmasens, Germany. The works, ranging in value from $4,000 to 50,000 dollars, were secreted under a school building, but looted during the Allied invasion. Beth Ann McFadden — who inherited the paintings — [...]

Vampire Weekend sued for $2 million over Contra cover art Model Kirsten Kennis sued Vampire Weekend for unauthorized use of her image on the cover of Contra (2010). Apparently, the image was shot by photographer Tod Brody in 1983 and licensed to the band through a forged release. From TMZ. Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN leaves [...]