[CIMC-working] Fwd: An Exhibition That Borrows Brazenly

[Chris Kaihatsu]

Subj:  Fwd: An Exhibition That Borrows Brazenly
Date:  1/8/03 5:07 am


-- Forwarded Message --

 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/07/arts/design/07SAMP.html


January 7, 2003

An Exhibition That Borrows Brazenly

By CHRIS NELSON

 It sounds like a plan for drawing hordes of screaming lawyers to your
door: create compilation CD's with sampled music from the likes of the
Beatles, James
 Brown and Johnny Cash, not to mention the voice of Dan Rather;
include as many songs as possible that have already sparked legal
battles; do it all without
 getting permission from the copyright owners; and distribute the CD's
at a nationally touring art exhibition.

Oh yeah, and give the music away online for the millions of people
around the globe who can't make it to the show.

So far this operation has not sparked even a lawyer's angry voice mail,
said Carrie McLaren, curator of the exhibition, "Illegal Art: Freedom of
Expression in the
Corporate Age," where the potentially inflammatory CD is available free,
and of its Web site, illegal-art.org.

"They know it'd be like a minefield," said Ms. McLaren, who contends
that the music, visual art and video pieces in the installation are
protected by the "fair use"
provision in copyright law that allows for parody and commentary. The
exhibition, she says, takes the potentially illegal and makes it
untouchable.

Maybe she should talk with Paul McCartney.

Sir Paul's spokesman, Paul Freundlich, is examining the apparently
unauthorized use of the Beatles' song "Tomorrow Never Knows" on the
"Illegal Art" track
"Psycho of Greed" by the rap group Public Enemy.

Both Public Enemy and Ms. McLaren are violating the law by distributing
copyrighted work without permission, Mr. Freundlich said. "The people
that are
actually doing this exhibit are just as guilty as anybody else who's
pirating anybody's artwork," he said.

If true, Ms. McLaren argues, that proves her point: American copyright
laws are overly restrictive and outdated. "Illegal Art," which had its
debut at CBGB's 313
Gallery in New York in November, moves to Chicago later this month.

The show's video section includes Brian Boyce's "State of the Union,"
which juxtaposes images borrowed from C-Span and the children's show
"Teletubbies"
to depict President Bush as an evil sun god destroying bunnies to make
way for oil wells. Todd Haynes's "Superstar" dramatizes Karen
Carpenter's anorexia
using Barbie dolls. The visual section, meanwhile, includes Ray
Beldner's re-creations of famous paintings made using United States
currency and Wally
Wood's notorious drawing of a Disney character orgy.

All of the pieces either have run afoul of copyright owners in the past
or could be expected to in the future. Jane C. Ginsburg, professor of
literary and artistic
property law at Columbia Law School, disagrees with the view that
copyright laws have become more restrictive for artists. "The irony is
that most of the stuff
that I see on the Web site wouldn't be considered illegal," she said.

But Edward Samuels, a New York Law School professor and author of "The
Illustrated Story of Copyright," estimates that half the exhibition is
in violation.

Giving away entire songs on a CD and online =97 including the Verve's hit
"Bittersweet Symphony" and Corporal Blossom's "White Christmas," which
interweaves versions of that song by Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong,
Frank Sinatra and others =97 is a clear infringement, Mr. Samuels said.

The songs in the exhibition are controversial precisely because
copyright owners have claimed that other artists are stealing their work
by sampling it, Ms.
McLaren said. "In order to really understand the song you need to hear
the whole thing," she said.

Though copyright law can make for arcane discussion, popular culture has
brimmed with the subject of late. Before the current term ends in June,
the United
States Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of the Sonny
Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. That law stretched copyright
ownership by
20 years =97 to 95 years after the author's life for work c