Court Rules Photo of Memorial Violates Copyright

WhatDoIKnow sends in a story about an appeals court ruling in a singular case that might have the effect of narrowing "fair use" rights for transformative uses of artworks. "The sculptor who designed the Korean War memorial [in Washington DC] brought suit against the Postal Service after a photograph of his work was used on a postage stamp. Though first ruled protected by 'fair use,' on appeal the court ruled in favor (PDF) of the sculptor, Frank Gaylord, now 85."

Comments

Perhaps there's a personal reason?

[Angst Badger]

Yes, this was a stupid decision, but before everyone jumps all over the artist, consider that the man is 85 years old and is a US citizen, which means that he's likely to have serious health problems but not to have adequate health insurance. He might very well be a greedy prima donna, but he might also just be sick and desperate.

As far as the fair use issue goes, it is my personal opinion that one ought to be able to photograph everything that is in public view and to profit therefrom. Unfortunately, that is just my personal opinion, and the laws and their interpretation can and probably do differ. Of course, if I got to make the laws, most of the crap that arouses outrage on Slashdot wouldn't be an issue, but there would probably be endless bitching about the difficulty of the math, logic, and statistics sections of the voter qualification test...