Legendary skateboard and music photographer Glen E. Friedman won a summary judgement last week in his copyright infringement lawsuit against Mr. Brainwash a.k.a. Thierry Guetta (star of the Banksy film Exit Through The Gift Shop), according to a story on The Hollywood Reporter. Friedman had sued Guetta because the “street artist” used Friedman’s iconic photo of Run D.M.C., (seen above in original and Mr. Brainwash version via Boing Boing) without permission. The judge seemed pretty logical on this one:
“To permit one artist the right to use without consequence the original creative and copyrighted work of another artist simply because that artist wished to create an alternative work would eviscerate any protection by the Copyright Act,” concludes Judge Pregerson. “Without such protection, artists would lack the ability to control the reproduction and public display of their work and, by extension, to justly benefit from their original creative work.”
Word. Now, all that is reportedly left is for the courts to decide how much Glen can recoup in damages. We’re guessing it will be quite a lot.
[Link: The Hollywood Reporter via Boing Boing]
