ABSTRACT
Artists have always used the work of others as building blocks in their own work. From this practice, appropriation art has emerged as an important artistic movement. Appropriation art describes the practice of copying works of others to create new pieces of art. With this movement, the inspiration for the modern artist has shifted with the new digital age. Artists now incorporate the images of others into their work easily with simple copy and paste functions.
While the art world has embraced these new practices, copyright law has not. The copyright fair use defense has become a complicated, inconsistent analysis when applied to visual art. Because of the inherent differences between visual art and other mediums that enjoy copyright protection, the current fair use standard does not work for visual art.
A new standard should be developed considering the factors that make visual art unique. Because literature was the original medium copyright law and fair use were designed to protect, these legal standards lend themselves to applications to works of literature. For these reasons, the inherent differences between literature and visual art can inform the necessary considerations for a new copyright fair use standard for visual art. This comment compiles these key differences and presents them in a summary table. Any new fair use standard for visual art should consider these factors to address the unique complexities of the medium.
Babaz, Carter, Why Visual Art Requires Its Own Standard Under Copyright Fair Use (January 26, 2022).
First posted 2022-03-21 18:00:13
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