Our Copyright Advisor, Alastair Keatley, casts his expert legal eye over some of the top stories which have caught his attention recently. This month, he talks about Rihanna, Google and Amazon’s recent ventures into the art world and computer-generated art.
Rihanna protects her image without a Personality Right
In the UK, there is currently no explicitly recognised Personality Right which permits direct control of one’s own image. In the majority of situations, anyone can reproduce photographs of a person provided they own the
copyright to that image or have permission to do so from the copyright owner. Nevertheless, the pop star Rihanna
successfully brought a claim against the Arcadia group, owner of Topshop, for selling t-shirts which featured unauthorised images of her.
The key factor in the decision was that her fans were likely to associate the t-shirt images with similar album cover photographs, and were therefore likely to see the clothing as ‘official’ Rihanna merchandise. Furthermore, Topshop also sells authorised products bearing her image, so in the judge’s view this was a misrepresentation.
Rihanna’s success is relevant to artists not just for similar ‘personal image’ scenarios but also where their
copyright-protected artwork might be regularly licensed by an organisation such as a gallery, but is used on a product which they have not authorised. The case shows that the courts will assist artists when their work is misrepresented in this way.
Google and Amazon push further into the Art Market
August saw the launch of
Amazon’s new art market which sells artwork online, including works by DACS artists. The e-commerce giant is currently working in partnership with several galleries but it remains to be seen how it will fit into the current art market. Critics are speculating that it may perform better in the mid-tier market rather than the high-end as the website currently provides little information about each work and certainly less than a serious buyer might expect in a traditional gallery.
Having developed the
Google Art Project in 2011, Google has ramped up expansion of the
Google Cultural Institute to digitise significant cultural treasures and make them available to view online for free - including artwork. In September, Google plans to open a physical space for the cultural institute in Paris and it is likely to approach more artists for contributions. As with all requests to digitally reproduce your work, we recommend checking the terms of the licence carefully and to be aware that the licence will be fairly open ended to enable Google to distribute images as widely as possible.
Art by PC? Disney develops ground-breaking software
Researchers over at Disney have developed software that can mimic the artistic style of illustrators, including elements of abstraction. The final results are interesting and raise some questions about the authorship of works, copying and artistic style. An artist’s style is itself not protectable by
copyright but at the same time a substantial reproduction of an artist’s existing work is
an act of infringement. Any software seeking to reproduce or expand on an artist’s works may have to take account of copyright law. The copyright owner is usually the creator of the work, but it is not certain that this would always be the case if a work is graphically generated by a PC, in particular if the software is run by someone else. As technology advances into artistic creation it is important to be fully aware of the rules to both take advantage of this technology and protect existing rights.
Want to know more about artist copyright, protecting your work and the law? Visit our Knowledge Base.
Are you represented by DACS and need advice on a specific issue? Alastair runs our Copyright Advice Line, providing tailored assistance to artists and beneficiaries who we represent for Artist’s Resale Right and Copyright Licensing.