celebrities in copyright trouble
Posted by Douglas Sorocco, September 22, 2004 at 2:38 pm
As you copyrighters may recall, only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work.
Two courtroom artists are suing former TV talk show host Rosie O'Donnell for copyright infringement. The artists accuse Ms. O'Donnell of trying to pass off photographs of their artistic sketches as her own.
The drawings by Andrea Shepard and her mother, Shirley, both courtroom artists, were rendered during the $100 million breach-of-contract trial last year that pitted O'Donnell against the publisher of her now-defunct magazine Rosie.
According to a 33-page complaint, the Shepards gave O'Donnell digital photographs of the drawings to help her choose which images she wished to buy.
Instead, the lawsuit said, O'Donnell cut the photos apart, removed the Shepards' name, address and copyright notice and made collages of their work, autographing them with her name.
"By implication, what Rosie O'Donnell was trying to say was that it was her artwork," said Joseph Tacopina, one of the lawyers representing the Shepards.
If the allegations are proven to be true, Ms. O'Donnel could be in for a heap of copyright woe for creating a derivative work and offering the derivative work for sale.
(from CNN with thanks to The Trademark Blog for the link)