The U.S. copyright law has a pre-litigation procedure allowing copyright holders to identify alleged infringers through unmasking subpoenas. In this blog post, we discuss the law surrounding these subpoenas and a recent case in which anonymous bloggers tried in vain to quash an unmasking subpoena.  This subpoena procedure is of relevance to creatives policing infringement, and to those wishing to exercise their First Amendment rights anonymously.

Earlier this week, Miramax sued Quentin Tarantino over the filmmaker’s plans to drop NFTs associated with Pulp Fiction.  Here’s what you need to know.

Last month, FinCEN invited the public to submit comments on implementation of an anti-money laundering act to the antiquities trade in the U.S. This blog post notes submissions by various art-market players.

Artist Samuel Kerson cannot prohibit Vermont Law School under the Visual Artists Rights Act from concealing murals he painted on the school campus, per a court order issued last week.

Yesterday, artist Christian Rosa (Weinberger) was indicted for his alleged role in the sale of forged works purportedly by artist Raymond Pettibon. Here’s what you need to know.

What is an artist or a museum to do when they discover that their artwork has been used in a porn film without their knowledge or approval (and they think that’s a bad thing)? Two recent legal spats raise this question. Here’s what you need to know.

In this blog post, we cover the Second Circuit's August 2021 amended opinion in the fair use case involving the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and photographer Lynn Goldsmith.

Recently, a New York court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a consignor alleging that a gallery committed fraud in connection with a net sale agreement. Here’s what you need to know.

Continuing on the NFT sales run, auction houses recently have announced the sale of NFTs that come with rights to 3-D print designs, use the artwork as a profile pic, and grant access to an online community of collectors. We discuss these sales below .

In this blog post, we discuss the trajectory of a unique album copy in the market, and what lessons can be learned about artists' rights management.

Recently, Roc-A-Fella Records, Inc. (“RAF”), which owns the rights to Jay-Z’s debut album Reasonable Doubt, sued one of the company’s three owners, Damon Dash, to block an NFT (non-fungible token) sale of the copyright to the album. RAF claims that, because it owns the copyright in the album, Dash has no right to sell it on his own. Shortly after filing suit, RAF obtained a court order temporarily barring Dash from selling any rights in the album. The case is a reminder that: (a) a rightsholder can block an improper NFT sale, and (b) minters and sales platforms should precisely identify the assets conveyed by any NFT.

Recently, visual artists have minted non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of their artwork and offered the NFTs for sale in curated online exhibitions. What copyright interest, if any, is the artist selling to the NFT buyer? What is in the contract between the auction house and the artist? Below we discuss some copyright considerations in connection with such NFT sales.

Recently, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court ruling that the Metropolitan Museum of Art did not infringe a photographer’s copyright in an image of Eddie Van Halen because the museum’s use of the image in its online exhibition catalogue constituted fair use.  This decision is relevant to all galleries and museums that exhibit artworks digitally, which has only increased since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Here’s what you need to know.

Recently, a federal appeals court in New York held that artwork by Andy Warhol, a leading figure of the Pop Art movement, is not “transformative” and that the artist’s foundation committed copyright infringement when it licensed the reproduction of one of his works. Does the decision represent a shift in the copyright law? Here’s what you need to know.