Did Anyone Hear About The Lady Liberty Forever Stamp Design Lawsuit?

I saw this article about a lawsuit for the design of the Lady Liberty
forever stamp:

https://www.linns.com/news/postal-u...liberty.html

What do you think?
The design had to come from somewhere.

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Actually the real claim is France wanting the statue back.

Why would France want the statue back?

I have no idea how old you are and how long you have been collecting, but this started almost immediately after the stamp was issued in 2011. The whole lawsuit seems sort of frivolous to me - the guy who designed this Las Vegas Liberty statue must have gotten the idea somewhere?

Peter

I wonder what the attorneys fees are up to.

The artist claims that his work is significantly different than the NY statue. He claims his statue is "more 'fresh-faced,' 'sultry' and even 'sexier' than the original located in New York."

And in looking at the two faces, there certainly is quite a delta.
Don


Edit: In my opinion, they should have settled with him. Perhaps a life time supply of the stamps would have made this go away?

I'm missing something.

Getty Images sold the Postal Service a license for the use of their image of the statue.

Q/ Why isn't Getty on the hook for not obtaining the underlying permission from the sculpture's owner?

Q/ Do Getty's licenses routinely state that the user of the image needs to obtain said underlying permission?

For example: I could pay Getty for a license to use one of their images of a dead actress, but still need to get a license from her estate to use the image?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I believe Davidson's theory is that the statue is an independent copyrightable work of sculptural art, and that Getty didn't acquire the right to sub license reproduction rights in the sculpture. Thus, he would say any reliance on the Getty license fails because Getty didn't have the right to transfer, to anyone, rights in the underlying sculptural work. If Getty didn't knowlingly deceive the USPS i.e. didn't represent that it had sculptural rights, it is unlikely to have liability. It didn't properly "clear" underlying rights in the image, but Davidson would have to sue it, which he hasn't.

Davidson sounds quirky in the article, which explains why the case has not settled. Plaintiffs can become irrational when they smell dollars in the deep pocket of government. He thinks that sales of 4 billion stamps means he gets billions of dollars. I give him less than 50% odds of winning and if he does, the USPS theory of a maximum award of $10,000 is sound. A verdict of $750 in statutory damages multiplied by 4.9 billion copies would be unconscionable and unprecedented.

https://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/site...RD092013.pdf
The sculptor of the column that is part of the Korean War Memorial was awarded just under $685,000 for a similar claim a few years ago. Another judge on the Court of Federal Claims awarded the artist $5,000 based on the typical amount that the USPS would pay as a licensing fee. Gaylord appealed from that judgment and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that he was entitled to the fair market value of the postal services infringing use.

A litigious World we live in.

I don't see how he can make any claim to this being an "original work"; it's clearly a copy of an existing statue. The fact that it has small differences is immaterial, since they were done by two different people in two different eras they would have to have some differences.

The threshold of originality that supports a valid copyright in the US is quite low, but the USPS agrees with you and is arguing that Davidson's scope of rights should be narrow.

There is no legitimate way to prove that the differences were intentional. We only have the artists word that they were. It could be argued that the differences are totally due to technique rather then planning. I'm not saying that is the case, just that it could certainly be claimed.

That is still enough. "Originality" or "creative authorship" in US law means little more than originating with a person. Exercising technique is enough.