{"id":5111,"date":"2019-08-06T12:06:25","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T16:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/?p=5111"},"modified":"2021-03-10T11:47:57","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T16:47:57","slug":"when-artists-sue-ai-wei-wei-volkswagen-beastieboys-lawsuits-copywright-infringement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/when-artists-sue-ai-wei-wei-volkswagen-beastieboys-lawsuits-copywright-infringement\/","title":{"rendered":"When Artists Sue: Creatives Fighting Back Against Corporate Theft"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

Copyright law is often a murky, gray area of the courtroom, and in this age of remix, remake, mashup and homage, it\u2019s becoming even more difficult to detect an original artist\u2019s fingerprints on a finished product. Of course, that hasn\u2019t prevented artists and designers from fighting back against the sometimes careless, capitalist machine. Have a look at these recent cases of copyright infringement, absorb the lessons, and you may avoid a needless, costly lawsuit of your own some day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aholsniffsglue vs. American Eagle Outfitters<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, Miami street artist David Anasagasti\u2014better known as Aholsniffsglue\u2014took on American Eagle Outfitters for using his signature droopy eye design in marketing campaigns across the globe. The copyright infringement started<\/a> when AEO put Ahol\u2019s work in the background of an ad, with a model photographed holding a spray paint can, as if he were the artist. But it didn\u2019t end there. A few months later, to promote a new store opening in Colombia, AEO allegedly invited local street artists<\/a> to copy Ahol\u2019s design and plaster the American Eagle logo on top. The case was settled out of court, with the $3 billion retail giant forced to pay an undisclosed sum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Original street artwork in Miami by David Anasagasti.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
American Eagle campaign<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Beastie Boys vs. GoldieBlox<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

GoldieBlox, a company that makes engineering and building toys for girls, got into a legal dust-up with the Beastie Boys over a viral video<\/a> that referenced their 1987 song, \u201cGirls.\u201d In the original video, three girls build a Rube Goldberg machine (like this<\/a> one) while singing the Beastie Boys hit with altered lyrics: \u201cGirls to build a spaceship \/ Girls to code the new app \/ Girls to grow up knowing \/ That they can engineer that.\u201d The group claimed it was copyright infringement; the toy company said it was parody, and that as such, it was fair use. After a suit and countersuit, the parties settled in 2014: Goldieblox issued an apology, and as per the band\u2019s request, donated $1 million to a charity supporting STEM education for girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Katie Thierjung vs. Marc Jacobs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, artist Katie Thierjung accused Marc Jacobs of copying several of her pin designs, including a parrot, a highball cocktail, and a margarita glass, sending the company a cease and desist letter. But, according to Artsy<\/a>, not only did Marc Jacobs continue to sell the stolen designs, the company \u201cproceeded to create numerous additional\u201d infringing products. This instance was a part of a greater trend of major fashion companies stealing the designs of independent artists<\/a>, which was cleverly coined \u201cpinfringement,\u201d by an earlier suit of 11 artists against women\u2019s clothing retailer Francesca\u2019s earlier in 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October of 2018, a judge tossed out<\/a> the artist\u2019s claim, ruling in favor of Jacobs. The decision came down to a distinction between trademark and copyright management: The Jacobs pins include the brand name (\u201cMarc Jacobs\u201d) on them\u2014but that alone said nothing about who owned the copyright. While Jacobs may have won this round, the fight\u2019s not over. Katie Theirjung, Laser Kitten, and Wildflower and Co. have also accused Marc Jacobs of copyright infringement, which has yet to be settled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Top left, top right, bottom left squares: Marc Jacobs’ recreated pins
Bottom right square: Katie Thierjung’s original pins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
View this post on Instagram<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/a>

Why buy the pin designs that @marcjacobs stole from me when you can buy the (cuter) originals?? ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether it’s the Beastie Boys or Ai Wei Wei or a Miami street artist named Aholsniffsglue, artists will sue if you borrow their work for your corporate branding. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":5148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Artists Sue: Copyright Infringement Cases - Ceros Inspire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When corporations steal artists' work for ads and marketing campaigns, they get sued for copyright infringement, like when Ai Wei Wei sued Volkswgen.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/when-artists-sue-ai-wei-wei-volkswagen-beastieboys-lawsuits-copywright-infringement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Artists Sue: Copyright Infringement Cases - Ceros Inspire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When corporations steal artists' work for ads and marketing campaigns, they get sued for copyright infringement, like when Ai Wei Wei sued Volkswgen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/when-artists-sue-ai-wei-wei-volkswagen-beastieboys-lawsuits-copywright-infringement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ceros Inspire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-06T16:06:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-10T16:47:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WhenArtistSue_featuredimageFeatured-Image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"599\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eliza Martin\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/\",\"name\":\"Ceros Inspire\",\"description\":\"Just another Ceros Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/when-artists-sue-ai-wei-wei-volkswagen-beastieboys-lawsuits-copywright-infringement\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/08\/WhenArtistSue_featuredimageFeatured-Image.jpg\",\"width\":667,\"height\":599},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/when-artists-sue-ai-wei-wei-volkswagen-beastieboys-lawsuits-copywright-infringement\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/when-artists-sue-ai-wei-wei-volkswagen-beastieboys-lawsuits-copywright-infringement\/\",\"name\":\"When Artists Sue: Copyright Infringement Cases - Ceros Inspire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/when-artists-sue-ai-wei-wei-volkswagen-beastieboys-lawsuits-copywright-infringement\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-06T16:06:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-10T16:47:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/#\/schema\/person\/d4816d142f11de0931d050a980e2d76b\"},\"description\":\"When corporations steal artists' work for ads and marketing campaigns, they get sued for copyright infringement, like when Ai Wei Wei sued Volkswgen.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/originals\/when-artists-sue-ai-wei-wei-volkswagen-beastieboys-lawsuits-copywright-infringement\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/#\/schema\/person\/d4816d142f11de0931d050a980e2d76b\",\"name\":\"Eliza Martin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6734f23fdba6fbd0b4379b2861d7ed7f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Eliza Martin\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5111"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16038,"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5111\/revisions\/16038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ceros.com\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}