Alan Bedenko has the rundown on an obnoxious bit of copyright enforcement going on in Buffalo: a mural artist who painted a mural on donated exterior building wall-space, after saying that he intended it to be the kind of mural people photograph for Instagram and the like, is billing businesses in whose ad materials his mural shows up, and then suing them if they don’t pay up. No “cease-and-desist”, just straight to “Give me money”, and often directed at those with deep pockets. This honestly seems less like “an artist protecting their copyright” and more like “an artist using copyright to shake the money tree”.
I honestly wouldn’t be all that disturbed if the owner of the building where the mural resides decided they didn’t want any part of this and had the thing powerwashed out of existence.
Another couple of interesting points:
The kicker is that this instagram wall isn't particularly original. The major elements are the Buffalo skyline which Milbrand didn't create, the sun rays which he took from Common Council chambers, and the "Greetings from Buffalo, New York" type which he took from an old postcard https://t.co/zsihlrIt78
— Rob Galbraith (@RobCGalbraith) April 10, 2023
Like literally one of the top results if you Google "Buffalo vintage postcard" is this, which the mural copies from the use of script for "Greetings from", the bubble letters for "Buffalo", and the placement of the bison in the lower righthttps://t.co/loLid5sI0r
— Rob Galbraith (@RobCGalbraith) April 10, 2023
Indeed. There are a lot of fascinating and wonderful murals in Buffalo; this one isn’t really even one of them.
