Posted on: September 12, 2018 by Alexander Herman
A stern-looking man with a gun turns towards a metallic device mounted on the wall. He places one hand on the device’s handle and checks his watch. It is 12.04. Next we see an analogue clock hanging above a presenter reading the BBC radio news into a microphone. The time on the clock reads 12.05. […]
Posted on: February 9, 2018 by Holly Woodhouse
The current intellectual property framework in the United Kingdom is underpinned by various international agreements, but is fundamentally shaped by EU Directives transposed into UK law. With the Government yet to outline how transposed EU law will operate within the UK following the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972, the fate of the UK’s […]
Posted on: January 19, 2018 by Alexander Herman
An interesting story has made it out of Bristol, the home city (apparently) of the elusive street artist Banksy. Back in 2009, Banksy had collaborated with the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery on an exhibition called Banksy versus Bristol Museum. In true Banksy style, it featured a burnt-out ice cream van on the Museum’s front […]
Posted on: May 24, 2017 by Alexander Herman
A number of issues arise when we use images of artistic works online. Here, I am referring to copyright and to the specific treatment of images of older works that may – or may not – have fallen into the public domain. Of course, once copyright has expired in a work, that work will enter the public […]
Posted on: May 4, 2017 by Hélène Deslauriers
In March, Jeff Koons and the Pompidou Centre in Paris were held jointly liable for copyright infringement. The work at issue was a porcelain sculpture of about 40 inches representing two naked children. The sculpture was part of Koons’s ‘Banality’ series and was scheduled to be part of a Koons retrospective at the Pompidou Centre […]
Posted on: April 25, 2017 by Alexander Herman
A story has been brewing over the past few weeks involving the famed Charging Bull sculpture that sits in the middle of Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. The sculpture was made by Arturo di Modica and installed without permission near Wall St as a Christmas gift from the artist to New Yorkers in December 1989. […]
Posted on: August 30, 2016 by Emily Gould
Our attention has been drawn yet again, this week, to the vexed question of ‘fair use’ as an exception to copyright protection under US law. When is a new work of art which draws on an existing copyright work acceptable, and when does it overstep the mark? The saga surrounding well-known appropriation artist Richard Prince […]
Posted on: August 7, 2016 by Emily Gould
Anyone keen to net a cut price replica Charles Eames chair, a bargain ‘Arco-style’ lamp or a reproduction Barcelona chair would be well-advised to act quickly. A change to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which came into force last Thursday (28th July) will mean that in six months’ time, copies of such modern […]
Posted on: June 29, 2016 by Alexander Herman
Of course we need to mention the very real possibility of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union following last Thursday’s referendum vote. We held a class on Saturday as part of our Diploma in Art Profession Law and Ethics (with some sad faces in the room, it should be said) and listed off a number of instruments and regulations in […]
Posted on: May 16, 2016 by Alexander Herman
My aunt, Gabrielle de Montmollin, a photographer and artist in Canada, is currently exhibiting her work in Toronto. I thought the show would be a good opportunity to discuss some of the copyright issues raised by her artistic approach. In particular, it serves as a way to explore a relatively new exception existing under Canadian […]