Saturday, April 06, 2019

Latest street art lawsuit

This time it's Mercedes-Benz suing four artists who they claim "have threatened to sue for copyright infringement."  They're seeking a declaratory judgment of non-infringement:

"The legal action revolves around photos posted on Mercedes-Benz’s Instagram profile in January 2018 (that have since been deleted) promoting the automaker’s luxury sports utility vehicle, the Mercedes G 500. The images were shot in Detroit’s Eastern Market, which has become widely known for its Murals in the Market initiative, and where the defendants all had murals. In its lawsuit, Mercedes-Benz ... claimed that its images 'fundamentally transformed the visual aesthetic and meaning' of the murals."

Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento is "curious if Mercedes Benz will take this all the way or bow out in settlement. We’ve said before that this legal issue is ripe for courts to answer, so why not now?"

Wednesday, April 03, 2019