Much controversy circulating regarding the $90K sale by a Beverly Hills gallery of a work by Richard Prince.
Many people have already formed an opinion on the matter.
If you haven't heard or are unclear I found Matt Rettenmund's take on the issue to be the clearest.
The legalities make the moral issue on copyright here a little less black and white.
Certainly, the response from Missy Suicide, whose work Prince has coopted, is genius. Personally I think the buyer won't be too perturbed by this avent: he know has a potentially significant cultural work in his ownership, and at just $90k, it's the year's most talked about art sale.
Perhaps this story wouldn't have caught the public's attention if we weren't talking about a five figure sum. That's a shame though, because the complexity of copyright today is more fifty shades of grey than black and white.
Nino Batista goes to the trouble of explaining how messy and unclear copyright is these days. A sign of a world that is becoming so adept at recycling that the laws we grew up with and that guided us are now obsolete? I don't know.
What I do know is that as I am vetting my novel, I'm finding that I have to change bits and pieces here and there because I've quoted the odd song lyric along the way., Having not gained permission to reproduce these copywritten words, it could be argued that I would be contravening laws for my own financial purposes rather than for fair use should I not remove them. Richard Prince is better protected some might say than others, but whatever else the outcome, carefully consider whether you really want to buy the $90 version of the image... In the coming weeks its ubiquity could become something like the latest addition to an Ikea catalogue...found in every second home.
Many people have already formed an opinion on the matter.
If you haven't heard or are unclear I found Matt Rettenmund's take on the issue to be the clearest.
The legalities make the moral issue on copyright here a little less black and white.
Certainly, the response from Missy Suicide, whose work Prince has coopted, is genius. Personally I think the buyer won't be too perturbed by this avent: he know has a potentially significant cultural work in his ownership, and at just $90k, it's the year's most talked about art sale.
Perhaps this story wouldn't have caught the public's attention if we weren't talking about a five figure sum. That's a shame though, because the complexity of copyright today is more fifty shades of grey than black and white.
Nino Batista goes to the trouble of explaining how messy and unclear copyright is these days. A sign of a world that is becoming so adept at recycling that the laws we grew up with and that guided us are now obsolete? I don't know.
What I do know is that as I am vetting my novel, I'm finding that I have to change bits and pieces here and there because I've quoted the odd song lyric along the way., Having not gained permission to reproduce these copywritten words, it could be argued that I would be contravening laws for my own financial purposes rather than for fair use should I not remove them. Richard Prince is better protected some might say than others, but whatever else the outcome, carefully consider whether you really want to buy the $90 version of the image... In the coming weeks its ubiquity could become something like the latest addition to an Ikea catalogue...found in every second home.
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