37-Cent Korean War Memorial Stamp Infringement On Copyright?

This is an old news article from sometime ago, but found it interesting. As I had not heard of the case previously, I thought I'd post it:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...428319.shtml

The bottom-line quote in the article is highlighted here:




I just wonder how many other postage stamp images have met with a similar court action about who hold the copyright?

Some people seem to find fault with anything,
it's a commemorative stamp, that's all
copyright, infringement, stunning failure, why the hell...

Goodness me.
Life, just get on with it.

I wonder if this is moot? If any damages were measured by the profit the post office made from the use of the image, the post office can't seem to make a dime! Case dismissed.

An interesting update to this copyright infringement case, potentially the largest ever to involve such matters.

And the value is not moot, the claim is the USPS made $30 million from the sale of stamps and merchandise from this issue alone, and that the copyright owner is entitled to damages of much more than the $5000 the USPS claims is the highest award ever paid to use a copyrighted image on a stamp:

http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuter...PS_-Fed_Cir/

Hooray for torts!

and the JD will spend millions of dollars fighting it...all the way to the supreme court..

An update to this old post. Still a pending legal claim against the USPS even now in 2013:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...amp/2592719/

If one was contracted or employed by the government or someone else to make something for them and paid for doing it, then wouldn't the one who paid for it to be made be entitled to it and it's copyright? If I write something for someone under their employ as a job, the copyright usually belongs to the employer since they paid the employee specifically for it. I think that the sculptures are copyrighted in the sense that no exact physical reproductions or copies of them as physical sculptures can be made and sold off for another such memorial or for any other use that would have identical copied physical sculptures. Since they are in a public place, how can one now expect private rights to them too so that no one can freely take a photograph of them at all without fear of copyright infringement?

I believe that's the whole point. I don't pretend to know much about the legalities of the matter, but how does this differ from someone using a photograph of any other man-made creation in a public place (i.e. Washington Monument, Mount Rushmore, etc.) which may be selected for use on a postage stamp?

It really opens up a "can of worms", as if the USPS loses this battle, I suspect they open themselves up to similar lawsuits from any number of other copyright owners whose works are depicted on stamps.

As an aside to the legal questions, if anyone goes to see this particular memorial be sure to go at least once to view it at night. The lighting is spectacular, and makes it one of the most haunting and effective of all the memorials on the Mall.

A September 20, 2013 update to this case was published today:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/...pyright-case

Contrary to what was stated in earlier publicity the $685,000 award was based on 10% royalty:

Thanks for the updates, wt1..

My only real thoughts about this stamp is one fellow I used to work with in IT in Plano, TX. His wife had been a nurse in the Korean War, and her best fried, a female doctor she worked with, died from a virus infection she acquired from an injured soldier she operated on somehow. By 1985, his wife was in bad health due to Diabetes, and was blind as well as confined to a wheelchair. He told me she always had nightmares about her friend from 35 years ago, watching her die over and over, year after year. When she heard about the memorial, she asked her husband to take her. So they disobeyed the doctor that told her not to leave the city, got on a plane, and flew to Washington. As he wheeled her about, she would stop him every now and then and just ask to touch something. She would stay there like that for a few minutes, sometimes crying, then asked to be wheeled to another portion. They did this for 5 hours. The next day, at her request, they got on the plane and flew home..

.. and she never had the nightmare again. I last talked to my friend a couple years ago. His wife had passed away, mostly due to the diabetic issues, in 2004. He told me she had greater peace about her after that trip than any other time he'd known here, and they'd been married since 1957.

That's what I think of every time I see that stamp. Not the lawyers (although they certainly are a modern 'necessity'.. blecchh) *

* If read by any lawyers, please don't take offense. It's the modern system I hate, not the individuals!)

An old legal case with a new 2015 decision:




The only remaining appeal is to the US Supreme Court and it would seem to me the issue is unlikely to make it there.

Nevertheless, it is suggested that the 37-cent Korean War Memorial Stamp will become one of -- if not THE -- most expensive stamp ever produced by the US Postal Service because of the cost for the artwork!

http://linns.com/news/breaking-stam...tist-$540000

http://www.nationallawjournal.com/l...150105172100

The following blog post adds further color to this.

Beyond just the damages award, there's the cost to the government (and the taxpayer) of THREE trips to the Court of Appeals to the Federal Circuit, which probably exceeded the damages award several times over.

http://patentlyo.com/patent/2015/02...atently-O%29