Appropriation "Artists"

[Mike Farley]

This story about appropriation "artist" Richard Prince, who takes other people's photographs and modifies them in some way, shows just how vulnerable original work is when posted online. Because Prince "transforms" the image in some way, which can be quite subtle, it becomes new work and he is entitled to copyright. I know davidc of this parish does not like my use of small, low resolution JPEGs, but that is the only way I can think of to prevent leeches such as Prince taking over my work and passing it off as their own. Unfortunately, in the US at least copyright law is outdated and does not cover this situation. I am not sure what the legal position is in this country, but if the acquisition of an image occurs in another country UK legislation might not be of much use anyway.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/20 ... woman.html

Another thing to remember is that many social media companies have terms and conditions which grant them a licence to use any material uploaded by users.