Good news for our artists

[Jim3k]

CB&B and dukefan1980 are both artists who paint about Duke sports.

I don't think either have had the permission/copyright issues faced by Alabama sports artist Daniel Moore, but Alabama accused Moore of pirating the Crimson Tide's copyrighted trade.

Today, after a seven year legal battle--Alabama being funded by the NCAA's Collegiate Licensing Company--the Eleventh Circuit dismissed Alabama's complaint.

So it looks like CB&B and dukefan1980 are in the clear (not that they ever ran afoul of duke, anyway).

[El_Diablo]

CB&B and dukefan1980 are both artists who paint about Duke sports.

I don't think either have had the permission/copyright issues faced by Alabama sports artist Daniel Moore, but Alabama accused Moore of pirating the Crimson Tide's copyrighted trade.

Today, after a seven year legal battle--Alabama being funded by the NCAA's Collegiate Licensing Company--the Eleventh Circuit dismissed Alabama's complaint.

So it looks like CB&B and dukefan1980 are in the clear (not that they ever ran afoul of duke, anyway).

This part of the Alabama dispute involved trademark infringement (in the form of trade dress such as the school uniforms and colors), NOT copyright infringement. So an artist who takes a copyrighted photograph and reproduces in a painting it is not really affected one way or the other by this ruling with respect to copyright issues. He or she could definitely still be violating the copyright holder's rights. Of course, the artist may have other defenses available (e.g., fair use for dukefan1980 if his painting is sufficiently "transformative," or no copyright infringement for CB&B if he is merely re-painting his own photographs).