Billingsgazette: This is a fantastic article about large copyright holders (such as Mattel, Disney, DC and so on) taking exception to artists using their brands in art, and backed it up with legal action.
Here's a quote from Tom Forsythe who was sued by Mattel for using Barbie in his photography (Mattel lost, and had to pay Forsythe's $2.1 million legal bill):
"I believe artists should be compensated for their work, and I think the copyright has an important role in maintaining the incentive for creative people to do creative work. But I believe the copyright is far too often becoming a tool of greedy corporations at the expense of creative people," Forsythe says. "It seems wildly obvious that they're really just control freaks who want to define the way their products are seen within the culture. ... Corporate censorship is becoming - now more than ever - as serious if not more serious than government censorship."
At the moment artists rights seem to be being protected more often than not, but considering the corporations continue to mount the legal challenges it would be very easy lose that right of use (parody).
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