Archive of Henry Lydiate‘s Artlaw column, published in Art Monthly since 1976. Have a legal question about your career? Check our Directory or send us a legal query.
Trademark or Copyright?
Towards the end of 2022, a significant judicial decision tackled a longstanding discussion within intellectual property law circles: whether copyright and registered trademark protections can apply simultaneously to the same image. Such questioning was the focus of…
Legal Drivers
Banksy began his practice as a freehand street graffiti artist, subsequently using stencils to facilitate the swifter execution of work – and thus avoidance of detection and arrest for criminal damage or trespass to other people’s property. He…
Idea/Expression Dichotomy
This year marks the centenary of the creation of a work widely accepted as the most influential of the 20th century: Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, 1917. This readymade and its reception heralded the transformation of modern and contemporary art…
Small Claims
The knowledge economy is evolving into the network economy. Traditional business practices are rapidly changing accordingly. But the machinery of governments and legislatures grind at a much slower pace, often rendering business rules and regulations unfit for purpose.…
Post-Internet Art
The World Wide Web is 25 years old this year. UK computer scientist Tim Berners Lee first proposed the concept in March 1989, and by November that year he had achieved the first Internet communication between a Hypertext…
Fair Use?
‘Copyright protection finds its justification in fair play. A person works and produces something. The product of his skill and labour ought to belong to him … It has long been recognised that only the original author ought…
Renting Art: Borrowers and Lenders Beware
Borrowing and lending art is generally a good thing. The practice can increase and broaden access by spectators who might not otherwise be able to experience directly the creative act. It can also generate…
Editions or Series: Picking Up The Pieces
A century ago Marcel Duchamp toyed with the idea of creating a box to hold notes and sketches for his works which eventually resulted in The Green Box, 1934, containing notes for the…
What is Sculpture?
On 27 July 2011 the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) handed down a landmark judgment that decided the legal meaning of sculpture in UK copyright law. The significance of this decision is far reaching, because UK law operates…
Performance Art and The Law
The resurgence of performance related artistic practices over the past decade raises complex aesthetic, legal and, at times, ethical questions regarding the protection, authorship and ownership of the ‘works’ generated through these artistic practices. The…
Copying by Universities
The new year ushered in several important judicial decisions dealing with artlaw matters, including the Bacon Estate; the Sotheby’s and Christie’s so called ‘price fixing’ case; payments to artists of royalty fees by UK Universities; and Gilbert…
Credit Where It’s Due?
Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol met in New York City – firstly only to shake hands, in May 1963, outside the Museum of Modern Art where both were entering the opening of the show ‘Americans 63′.…
Postmodern Artwork
Just like the proverbial long wait at the bus stop and then three buses come along at once, there has been a bumper crop of recent illuminating copyright lawsuits involving works by artists as diverse as Richard Prince,…
ArtlawTV
A series of short films exploring the main legal issues that artists face. Each film comprises an interview with an artist about their work, with an overview of the legal implications of their practice by Henry Lydiate, art legal…
Court Cases
It is unusual for there to be a sufficient number of artlaw cases to report between Issues, but this month there is a wealth of them. Duchamp’s urinals In 1998 a French artist, Pierre Pinoncelli, committed criminal damage…
Freedom of Information
Commission fees paid to artists by public sector organisations in the UK must be disclosed to anyone requesting such information, according to a recent decision made by the Information Tribunal operating under the provisions of the UK’s…
US Copyright Protection for UK Artists
It is rare for visual arts copyright cases to end up at court. Even more rare for the trial to be fully conducted and judgment given; most copyright cases are settled out of court.…
©autionary Tales: Of Hoffman
Tale One In October of last year photographer David Hoffman successfully prosecuted London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ Councillor Barrie Duffey (Liberal), for distributing a leaflet which violated Hoffman’s copyright. The leaflet is not a grand affair:…