RE: [dvd-discuss] MovieMask - I'm sure the lawsuit is on itsway

[Wendy Seltzer <wendy(at)seltzer.com>]

At 11:59 AM 11/15/01 -0500, Dean Sanchez wrote:
>This may actually come under a different category.  I'm not sure if it
>is a state (FL) or federal item, but artists have gotten either a law or
>regulation passed that essentially states that the work must be display
>as they created it.  This was a issue in my city because the city had
>commissioned some artwork for a park.  It's been a couple of years, but
>I think it was a memory walk.  Because it was in a high traffic area, it
>required constant maintenance.  The city wanted to move it, but the
>artist successfully sued preventing the move and forcing the city to
>continue the maintenance.


That comes from the Visual Artists Rights Act  of 1990 (VARA)
<http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/106A.html>
which imports some European-style moral rights for the "author of a work of 
visual art" -- rights of "integrity" and "attribution", including the right 
to prevent distortion or mutilation of the work.  The right is limited to 
the artist's lifetime, and is non-transferrable (but can be waived in 
writing).

<http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/101.html>
A ''work of visual art'' is -

       (1) a painting, drawing, print, or sculpture, existing in a
       single copy, in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that
       are signed and consecutively numbered by the author, or, in the
       case of a sculpture, in multiple cast, carved, or fabricated
       sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by
       the author and bear the signature or other identifying mark of
       the author; or

       (2) a still photographic image produced for exhibition
       purposes only, existing in a single copy that is signed by the
       author, or in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are
       signed and consecutively numbered by the author.
[...]

that is, it doesn't apply to mass-produced DVDs or the like.

--Wendy

--
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.com
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html