3 Count: Wriggling Worms
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1: Shenseea Hit With Second Copyright Lawsuit For US$450,000 Over ‘Foreplay’ Video
First off today, Claudia Gardner at DancehallMag reports that Jamaican dancehall artist Shenseea is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Stephanie Sarley, a visual artist who accuses Shenseea of infringing the copyrights of three of her pieces.
According to the lawsuit, Shenseea’s music video Foreplay feature clips from three works Sarley created dealing with erotic fruit. She claims that the music video features “nearly forty seconds” from her three works, and that she was not asked nor gave permission for the use.
Sarley had previously threatened legal action back in 2019. At the time, fans of Sarley took to Shenseea’s YouTube channel, causing the video in question to be removed. Since then, Shenseea has released an edited version of the video minus the fruit clips.
2: Banksy Encourages People to Shoplift from London Store Over Copyright Row
Next up today, Hollie Geraghty at NME reports that the street artist Banksy is calling upon his nearly 12 million Instagram followers to shoplift from a London store following the unauthorized use of some of his artwork.
The dispute centers around a GUESS store in London, which features a recreation of the famous Banksy work Rage, the Flower Thrower. In response, Banksy took to Instagram and, in a post headlined “Attention All Shoplifters” he called on people to steal from the store because, “They’ve helped themselves to my artwork without asking, how can it be wrong for you to do the same to their clothes?”
Since then, the store has covered up the mural and posted security outside the shop. However, Brandalised, the line GUESS partnered with for the display, posted their own quote from Banksy, where he said, “I was a bootlegger for three years, so I don’t really have a leg to stand on.”
3: Berlin’s Beloved Transit Seat Design Escapes Legal Bind
Finally today, Feargus O’Sullivan at Bloomberg reports that a copyright dispute over Berlin’s “Wriggly Worms” pattern has led to their being replaced in the city’s public transit system.
The case centers around artist Herbert Lindinger, who created the original pattern in the late 1980s. The pattern became an iconic part of Berlin city transport. It was recently that BVG, the city’s largest public transit company, began selling the pattern on various items of merchandise, prompting Lindinger to file a lawsuit and a judge to agree that BVG was in violation of their agreement.
This prompted BVG to stop selling the merchandise, but also caused them to put out another process to commission a new pattern, one that they can legally feature on other merchandise. As such, Lindinger’s older work is being slowly phased out and a new pattern, one featuring the German flag colors, is being introduced.
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