By: Brian J. Meli
At a party over the holidays, a photographer friend of mine asked me a copyright question that seemed straightforward enough. Being an intellectual property attorney, I’m no stranger to these questions, and aside from the festive stylings of Andy Williams and Bing Crosby playing in the background, there wasn’t much different about this particular occasion. But as the question evolved into one of the more absorbing, thought-provoking discussions I’ve had in a while, I realized I’d been too quick to judge.
The topic on my friend’s mind that night concerned the rights photographers have in photographs they take of other artists’ copyrighted works. My friend, you see, is frequently commissioned to photograph famous works of art for various publicity purposes.