Thursday, 19 June 2008

Copywrong?

This Village Voice article caught my eye this week - Artist, Fan Clash Over What Constitutes Online Piracy. Artist Alex Grey has filed a copyright-infringement suit against Juan Pablo Fernandez, a big fan of Grey's work who buys prints legitimately, frames them, then resells them on Ebay.

It's not the on-selling that bothers Grey: it's that Fernandez is making digital images of his work available. From the article:

Whether online photos of artwork constitute illegal reproductions is a murky legal question, but one that is hugely important to sellers on eBay, CraigsList, Amazon, and other venues where people often resell their possessions. While publishing a photo of a copyrighted work for the purpose of reselling it certainly can be legitimate, it's a question of interpretation, says Paul Fakler, vice chair of the New York State Bar's intellectual-property section: "The courts have a lot of latitude on deciding what is fair."

I know this is an American example, but I had been wondering recently: do auction houses have to get copyright permission to reproduce artworks in print and online catalogues, or is this covered by the 'fair use' clause of copyright law? Does anyone know?

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