It’s campaign season and flaps between musicians and politicians are on the rise. Early last week we noted that Talking Heads frontman David Byrne sued Florida Governor Charlie Crist for releasing an attack ad using the band’s Road to Nowhere. The Crist camp posted the commercial on the campaign website and YouTube without first obtaining [...]

An interesting conundrum to say the least. Detroit Free Press reports that a mural by notorious London street artist Banksy which was moved to a non-profit gallery has been removed from public viewing. The gallery, concerned by emails and phone calls threatening to deface the work, decided to move it until it could be safely [...]

It’s not uncommon for artists to settle disputes out of court to avoid protracted litigation. For instance, in 1980 Robert Rauschenberg settled with photographer Morton Beebe after discovering that his photograph was used in Rauschenberg’s seminal work Pull (1974). The agreement included $3,000 and a copy of the work. Whether for financial or PR reasons, [...]

In addition to the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) (17 USC 106A), there are 12 individual states with codified moral rights. See also “Know Your Moral Rights” for an overview of moral rights in the context of Wojnarowicz v. American Family Association (745 F.Supp.130 S.D.N.Y.,1990). California, Cal. Civ. Code § 987 (West 1982) (Supp. 1996): [...]

The Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) (17 USC 106A) of the Copyright Act embodies an artist’s “Moral Rights.” Moral Rights generally include the right to attribution of one’s work, the right of integrity, and the right to disclosure. While twelve states have moral rights acts, they serve to supplement the federal law since its implementation [...]