Infringement and Advocacy
In 2002 and 2006, ARS asked Google to remove customised versions of its logo put up to commemorate artists Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró, alleging that portions of specific artworks under their protection had been used in the logos, and that they were utilized without permission. According to Theodore Feder, president of ARS, "there are underlying copyrights to the works of Miró, and they are putting it up without having the rights." Google complied with the request, but denied that there was any violation of copyright.
Since 2008, ARS and Google have worked together to produce customized versions of Google's logo to commemorate ARS member artists, Marc Chagall, Rene Magritte and Jackson Pollock. The Chagall customized logo appeared with permission of ARS and the Estate of Marc Chagall on July 8, 2008, to celebrate what would have been Chagall's 121st birthday. The Magritte customized logo appeared with permission of ARS and the Estate of Rene Magritte on November 12, 2008, to celebrate what would have been Magritte's 110th birthday. The Pollock customized logo appeared with permission of ARS and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation on January 28, 2009, to celebrate what would have been Pollock's 97th birthday.
In June 2008, ARS president Theodore Feder worked with artist Frank Stella to create an Op-Ed for The Art Newspaper decrying a proposed U.S. orphan works law. In it, Stella wrote,
| “ | The Copyright Office proposal would have a disproportionately negative, even catastrophic, impact on the ability of painters and illustrators to make a living from selling copies of their work... It is deeply troubling that government should be considering taking away their principal means of making ends meet—their copyrights. | ” |
In July 2008, ARS worked with the Illustrator's Partnership of America (IPA) and the Advertising Photographers of America (APA) to submit to congress a document titled, "Suggested Amendments to H.R. 5889: Orphan Words Act of 2008." The document outlined 12 amendments which the ARS, IPA and APA believe will decrease the potential negative impact of the Orphan Works Act and discourage "wide-scale infringements of visual art while depriving creators of protections currently available under the Copyright Act." ARS has joined over 60 other art licensing businesses (including the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the Stock Artists Alliance, among others) in opposing both The Orphan Works Act of 2008 and The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008.
Read more about this topic: Artists Rights Society
Famous quotes containing the word infringement:
“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
—William Pitt, The Younger (1759–1806)