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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."
Silly me... I thought the point of a memorial was for it to be placed in the trust of (or outright given to) the public... That being the case, how does this decision affect other images of public art?
Knock down his statue, break it into a million pieces, and send them all to his house using the infringing stamps.
Fair use of a copyrighted work “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
17 U.S.C. 107
This is the law. This is not how the Postal Service used his copyrighted work. As an aside, this is also not what Tenenbaum et al. did when they downloaded music.
We shouldn't complain when judges use restraint and don't bastardize statutes.
17 million sales of $.37 stamps = 46 million or so stamps actually produced.
Statutory damages can run from $750-$30,000 per copy, assuming that it wasn't a willful infringement.
That's a minimum award of $34,500,000,000 (34.5 billion) and a maximum award of 1,380,000,000,000 (1.4 trillion). Plus attorney's fees, of course. Roughly last year's federal deficit not counting off-budget spending bills.
Would anyone here care to argue that statutory damages in the U.S. are not way out of proportion to the scope of the infringement?
This is nothing more than a huge slap in the face to all American veterans, of any conflict.
My grandfather was in Korea, and he made what's perhaps the most ultimate sacrifice short of his life: his genitals. Thankfully, he had three kids by the time he was sent over, one of them being my mother. But it still apparently left him a very changed man, more so than most veterans.
I am glad that he is no longer around, to spare him from having to hear of this disgraceful ruling. Many of his friends' names were on that monument.
The underlying problem is that copyrights were improperly assigned to Gaylord in the first place.
I think the word you are actually looking for is something like "erroneously" or "stupidly". It seems like the copyrights were properly assigned.
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Scary, or perhaps stupid, or even ridiculous. This was commissioned by Congress and occupies space in a public park. It belongs to the United States, so we should be able to use images of it just as we do with the other public buildings and monuments we own.
And the Corps of Engineers should be able to take the damn thing to a safe place and blow it up. I'd rather see it destroyed than stand in mockery of the men it commemorates.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
It's hardly the first time copyright law has been called stupid.
How about all of the Korean vets sue Frank Gaylord for intruding on their IP. After all, they FOUGHT the war.
"One of the best -- and most annoying -- examples is wedding photos, which the photographer usually retains rights to, even if he sells you prints."
As long as you surrender your rights as a consumer it's no wonder others will abuse of that.
I married two years ago and I made damn clear I was contracting a service and that all byproducts and associated rights from that service were my own. There were two phographers that didn't see it that way... well, they didn't get neither the copyright nor the money for the service.