Last night was a fascinating evening at the Sotheby’s Institute in New York, where Judith Prowda was celebrating the launch of her new book Visual Arts and the Law (Lund Humphries 2013). The book, not at all incidentally, is a must-have.
Free Speech, Fair Use, and Meaning—Recapping An Evening of Copyright and the Visual Arts at the Sotheby’s Institute
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on October 17, 2013 at 1:34 PM
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Topics: free speech, Richard Prince, Amy Adler, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Judith Prowda, Canal Zone, Patrick Cariou, Lund Humphries, Boies Schiller, American Society of Media Photographers, Yes Rasta, Kirkland & Ellis, NYU Law School, Events, Picture Archive Council of America, Shepard Fairey, Dale Cendali, Copyright, Hope, Visual Arts and the Law, transformative, First Amendment, Associated Press, Sotheby’s Institute, Fair Use
Detroit Emergency Manager Expects DIA Collection to Bring Revenue
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on October 14, 2013 at 8:29 AM
As the controversy around the possible sale of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection continues to swirl, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr has given some of his most pointed comments to date about his expectations.
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Topics: Diego Rivera, Michigan Attorney General, Judge Rhodes, Christie's, Detroit Institute of Arts, Bankruptcy, Michigan Constitution, Bill Schuette, Kevyn Orr, Detroit Bankruptcy
"Selling the Museum's Collection: Is Deaccessioning Ever Appropriate?" at Columbia October 28, 2013
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on October 11, 2013 at 11:12 AM
A reminder that two weeks from Monday, I will join a panel discusion at Columbia Law School entited "Selling the Museum's Collection: Is Deaccessioning Ever Appropriate?" From the event description:
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Topics: Donn Zaretsky, Roberta Smith, Deaccession, Pippa Loengard, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Art Law Report, Events, Columbia Law School, Nicholas O'Donnell, New York Times
IBA Annual Conference Starts Today in Boston
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on October 6, 2013 at 7:30 AM
I’ll be at the International Bar Association Conference all week here in Boston, starting tonight. Among others, I’m looking forward to the sessions below (the first featuring my partner at Sullivan & Worcester, Laura Steinberg, the trademark panel featuring my partner at Sullivan & Worcester Kim Herman, and others given by the Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee). If you follow the Art Law Report and you’ll be in attendance, welcome to Boston, and drop a line or a Tweet.
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Topics: Laura Steinberg, Annual Conference, Kim Herman, Sullivan & Worcester LLP, Events, Copyright, Boston, IBA, International Bar Association
Fair Use and Social Utility: Google Books Case Could Drive Copying of Visual Arts in the Name of Access
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on September 30, 2013 at 5:15 AM
Comments by the federal judge overseeing the copyright dispute arising out of the Google Books project could portend a lasting effect on reproductions of visual arts. Elevating the question of social benefit in a fair use analysis, Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York posed a question that, applied broadly (which is no theoretical proposition where Google is involved) could turn fair use analysis on its head. Time will tell if the comments were oral argument musings or something more lasting.
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Topics: Google Books, 17 U.S.C. § 107, Copyright, The Authors Guild, Judge Denny Chin, Fair Use
Coverage of Lessig "Lisztomania" DCMA Takedown Lawsuit Continues
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on September 27, 2013 at 5:10 AM
News media have started to pick up on the lawsuit filed in August by Lawrence Lessig, which challenges takedown notice practices by Liberation Music under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”) in relation to Lessig's lecture series later posted on YouTube, which featured third party content creators and the song "Lisztomania" by the French band Phoenix, whose copyrights Liberation apparently claims it enforces.
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Topics: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Lawrence Lessig, Lisztomania, Copyright, Liberation Music Pty Ltd
Knoedler Forgery Cases Foretell New Battleground Over Art Dealer Diligence
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on September 25, 2013 at 1:04 PM
For more than two years now, the collapse of the M. Knoedler & Co. Gallery in New York amidst allegations of forged paintings by well-known 20th Century artists has sent ripples in all directions: legal, art historical, legislative, and connoisseurship. Several recent developments have drawn focus to the likely litigation fallout among those affected by the scandal.
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Topics: Andy Warhol Foundation, Daedalus Foundation, William K. Rashabaum, Forgery, Knoedler, Ann Freedman, Wolfgang Belctracchi, Marco Grassi, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Patricia Cohen, Litigation, Glafira Rosales, New York Times, M. Knoedler & Co., connoisseurship, New York Magazine, National Public Radio
UPDATED Deaccessioning Panel Discussion at Columbia Law School October 28, 2013, 12:15 PM
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on September 24, 2013 at 5:54 AM
I will be on a panel at the Center for Law and the Arts at Columbia Law School on Monday, October 28, 2013 discussing deaccessioning issues. Details are yet to come, but co-panelists will include Donn Zaretsky of John Silberman Associates (and writer of the Art Law Blog), and Roberta Smith of the New York Times. The event is scheduled for lunch. The panelists have quite different views of the issue, and it promises to be a lively and well-informed discussion.
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Topics: Donn Zaretsky, Roberta Smith, Columbia Law School, Center for Law and the Arts, New York Times
Cariou Petitions Supreme Court to Review Richard Prince Fair Use Decision
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on September 4, 2013 at 9:21 AM
Patrick Cariou, after winning his copyright claim against Richard Prince in the District Court in 2011, suffered a stinging reversal earlier this year when the Second Circuit found in Prince’s favor as to his use of Cariou’s Yes, Rasta series in the Prince Canal Zone collages. The Second Circuit decision has been widely derided by copyright analysts, who apart from the relative merits of Cariou vs. Prince found the decision unclear as guidance to future artists and copyright holders. For the Art Law Report’s coverage of the case, click here.
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Topics: Cariou v. Prince, Richard Prince, Roy Orbison, Canal Zone, Patrick Cariou, Campbell v. Acuff Rose Music Inc., Yes Rasta
Revival of the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act?
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on August 30, 2013 at 5:03 AM
The Holocaust Art Restitution Project reports today that a new version of Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act that would have amended the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to preclude claims against defendants whose “commercial activity” is limited to the loan of artwork whose ownership is in dispute, but which are immunized from seizure pursuant to the Immunity from Seizure Act (22 U.S.C. § 2459). The Art Law Report covered the bill extensively last year. Although the bill as previously passed would have exempted Holocaust claims from the exception, the bill in broad terms was designed to prevent another Malevich v. City of Amsterdam situation, in which the very loan of a painting immunized from seizure was itself held to satisfy the commercial activity jurisdictional requirements of the FSIA.
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Topics: Holocaust Art Restitution Project, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 22 U.S.C. § 2459, Association of Art Museum Directors, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Immunity from Seizure Act, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
