Tatto Artist Sues NBA For Showing His Artwork Without Compensation
from the no,-seriously dept
The examples of ridiculous misuses of intellectual property law seem to be coming fast and furious these days. The latest is that a tattoo artist who did the tattoo on one player's arm is suing the NBA, claiming a violation of his copyright in having the tattoo seen in some commercials. This is, obviously, pure greed, rather than any legitimate copyright claim. The guy sold the tattoo to the player who now has the right to display it wherever and however he wants. Next thing you know, artists will sell you a painting, but demand you pay them a fee every time anyone looks at it. Unfortunately, that seems to be exactly how some in the entertainment industry are trying to set things up when it comes to digital content -- but not everyone realize that the digital copyright questions are often just as outrageous as these analog examples.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
It's Routine
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: It's Routine
Option 2) Legislate it to death. Create laws even *more* descriptive and definitive than what we have today.
Option 3) Get reasonable people in the Judicial branch to throw out stupid lawsuits like this (I bet the NBA player never signed a copyright agreement when the "art" was purchased) *and* charge the plaintiff some kind of fee for needlessly tying up the system.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Don't be so sure about the copyright issues
The other issue is whether a tattoo is considered commissioned art. If I commission you to create a piece of art, the artist retains all rights to the art unless otherwise specified.
I think this is a good thing. I like to see (ab)users of copyright like the NBA get stung by it a little bit.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Don't be so sure about the copyright issues
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I guess it's not being considered
Sometimes the best way to demonstrate the absurdity of a law is to use it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
compensated endorsement
Presumably, if I got a copyrighted tat, I'd have just about all rights except to use it commercially. You could argue that featuring it in advertising would be commercial use. But since the original intent appears to have been to encourage commercial use to generate exposure for the artist, you'd think that right was implied.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Its your after you pay me
I tatoo people all day long. I have a whole PILE of books filled with pictures of tatoos that I have done, along with other "skin ink magicians".
I also have books filled with illustrations.
What is the point? To give the customers an idea of what can be done.
Do I own the copyrights for the tatoo? NO.
Do I own the copyrights for the images I am basing my work on? NO
Get serious.
Copyrighting a tatoo is stupid. Did the guy put a little (c) in the tatoo? Does the "artist" have the right to REMOVE the tatoo?
GET SERIOUS!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]