Cc-uk mailing list

[rob AT robmyers.org]

Quoting Ben Dembroski <info AT arthacking.org>:

> Am I totally off-base on this?

I think copyright would apply to physical copies of sculptures. IANAL, though.

> An example of this in action (pardon the pun) is the Fischli & Wiess 
> "Der Lauf der Ding (The Way Things Go)" and the Honda advert "Cog". I 
> know that Fischli Weiss were considering legal action over this at 
> one point, but I nerver found out what the outcome was. I suspect 
> that the artists simply realized they could not compete with the 
> legal resources Honda has at their disposal.

It depends whether the advert copied the imagery or the idea. You can't
copyright an idea. (I think this was Honda's argument).

> Does any one know of any other cases of non-pictorial copyright 
> infringement involving a scuplture?

There's a famous case of a sculpture of a photograph infringing: Jeff Koons's
"String Of Puppies":

http://www.chillingeffects.org/derivative/faq.cgi#QID384

> I whole heartedly agree with Tom's notion of 'creativity for all'.

Yes. There is a "right to art" in the UN Declaration of Human Rights (Article
27). And access to art should no more be based on ability than access to
property should be based on gender.

Gilbert & George used to have a company called "Art For All". :-)

> Regarding sculpture, sand and/or ice sculptures are a great way to 
> get the idea of finished-object-as-temporary-condition across, and is 
> something that almost everyone can identify with. (They're fun to 
> make too.)

Regarding Tom's idea of giving art away (Gift Art), there's a precedent 
for this
in the work of Sal Randolph, who gave away 200 blue paintings and who 
organised
a slot in Manifesta that anyone could contribute to:

http://www.freewords.org/freehist/freehst.html
http://www.freemanifesta.org/essay.html
http://salrandolph.com/index.php?id=19

- Rob.