BACKGROUND RIGHTS

A half dozen major museums, artists and university presses are being sued for “appropriation” of copyrighted images. “The plaintiffs are seeking to hold the defendants liable for promoting and selling the disputed image, which they say was distributed on T-shirts, magnets, books, brochures, cards, websites and street billboards, including two immense building displays in New York arranged by the Whitney Museum. The lawsuit raises the question of what happens if an underlying image used in such a work is not in the public domain.” – The Art Newspaper