The Columbia Visual Arts Infringement Database seeks to educate lawyers, law students, academics and members of the artistic community about issues relating to copyright and the visual arts. The Database presents selected visual art infringement cases, with particular attention to images of the works in dispute. A court’s verbal descriptions of the source work and its alleged infringement cannot adequately convey the works’ appearance, and therefore inevitably diminish the reader's understanding of disputes over issues such as independent creation, substantial similarity, idea/expression, and fair use. Seeing is believing, or as may often be the case, disbelieving and debunking the parties’ claims or the court’s assessment. The website shows the images in pairs, organized in a variety of ways: chronologically, by names of parties, by types of works, or by the legal issue in question. Hence, for example, the visitor to the site may call up cases concerning photographs, or cases raising the defense of independent generation of a similar-appearing work.
Each case page contains a short précis of the case, a case summary, and the full text of the decision. Where possible, we have included within each case page extra materials, such as additional images, and news articles about the controversy and the parties, as well as links to the artists’ websites, where available. In addition to the decided cases, the website includes a section devoted to settled cases.
The Database was initially inspired in part by an earlier website created at Columbia Law School and now hosted by George Washington University, the Music Copyright Infringement Resource. That site’s insight – that encountering the complaining and defending works in their original media uniquely informs one’s analysis and appreciation of the caselaw – also prompts this website devoted to arts infringement cases.
For information on how to use the VAID site click here. If you have questions, please email the Kernochan Center.