THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES:

Copyright is full of technicalities that regulate what you can and cannot do with a work of art. The Copyright Act of 1976 made the rule that copyright is in existence when the orginial work is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression” which it specifies as: fine art, graphic art, applied art, photographs, prints and reproductions, maps, globes, charts, technical drawings, diagrams, models, sculptures, statutes, figures and forms and has additional classification for literary, dramatic and musical works. Because of this rule, artists no longer have to register a copyright on paper because, according to law, it is copyrighted when it is made. The only benefit of registering on paper is to claim monetary damages in the case of copyright infringement. With the Internet creates an issue with this rule because now every work of art is instantly copyrighted and the use of a work on the Internet may constitute a new copy.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 criminalizes the manufacture and distribution of any technology or toll designed to circumvent encryption technologies like removing digital water marks and also makes it illegal to circumvent technological measures in place to control the access to the piece like password protections. The Internet makes it a lot easier to reproduce works a redistribute in digital form.

The Copyright Act of 1976 gives the owner the right produce derivative works based on the original, but with new computer software programs, works derived from the original are easy to make spurring the debate if the work is interpretive or transforming. Regulations could be put into effect must distinguish between “pirating” and “tweaking”. Also according to the Copyright Act of 1976, reproduction rights remain with the artist and their heir’s until the work becomes part of the public domain. Fair use qualifications for using the piece of art include, but are not limited to: comment, new reporting, criticism, teaching, scholarship, and research. Many young people believe that everything on the Internet is automatically in the public domain and free to be used in anyway the user wants, which is not the case. Because of the ease of reproducing an image form the Internet, it is incredibly hard to regulate what available to be copied and what is not.

1) Original

2) An anti-circumvention violation (against terms of use and DMCA)

3) Image alteration (against terms of use and VARA: ----visual artist rights act----under the Berne Convention. The creator of fine art works has to A—claim authorship B—prevent use of one’s name on art one did not create. C---prevent the use of one’s name as a creator of a work that has been distorted, mutilated, or modifed)

Jones, Michael E. “Visual Fine Art and Copyright in the Digital Networking Age”. Journal of Law, Ethics and Intellectual Property. Vol. 1, Issue 1. 2007