Google Violates Miro's Copyright?

Anonymous Coward writes "In a homage to Joan Miro on his birthday, Google changed its logo as to spell out the word "Google" in Miro's style. Google has a history of changing its logo in order to commemorate events and holidays of particular significance. In this case, the homage was not well received by the Miro family or the Artists Rights Society which represents them, as reported by the Mercury News. According to Theodore Feder, president of the ARS, "There are underlying copyrights to the works of Miro, and they are putting it up without having the rights". The ARS demanded that Google removed the logo, and Google complied, though not without adding that it did not believe it was in violation of copyright. The ARS has raised similar complaints regarding Google's tribute to Salvador Dali in 2002. "It's a distortion of the original works and in that respect it violates the moral rights of the artist," Feder said." It seems to me that the art world has a glorious history of incorporating prior art into modern creations. It's amusing to me that ARS doesn't understand that.

Comments

Re:but they didn't use HIS art

[squiggleslash]

Again, abusive moderation means my original comment has been hidden. The parent is FALSE.

As I said before, it isn't a new work created using the same style. It contains specific copyrighted elements, and is a derived work, which is why the discussion has come up in the first place. Your comment is objectively untrue.

I'm not sure why you're modded at +5 (like the GGP) for (like the GGP) actively posting misleading nonsense, while attempts to put out corrections are getting modded to oblivion, but the fact is, you're wrong. The fact is that this is about moral rights, not money. And the fact is this is about Google producing a derived work that, as far as the family and ARS are concerned, violates copyrights by allegedly copying specific elements of specific works (The Escape Ladder, 1940, Nocture, 1940, and The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers 1941); the complaint is NOT about style.

The mods seem to be on crack today. It seems to be a case of "If you imply Google is right, or that copyright doesn't apply, or that anyone complaining about copyright violations is either evil or wrong or both, MOD UP +5 INCITEPHUL!!!!1!!! If you point out the facts don't match, then you get modded down. Which is a shame, because there's a whole interesting debate about moral rights here that seems to have been swept under the carpet in the Slashbot's zeal to simplify every discussion of copyright to banal "Freedom fighters vs Mammon" arguments.