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I hope that every time Jay leaves the house, he sees these posters — and as he looks at them or tries to tear them down he thinks about how evil what he did was. Maybe he’ll realize that at some level all art borrows from other art, and suing another artist for fair use appropriation undermines all artists. Maybe he’ll feel guilty about being such a thief. And then maybe he’ll think about giving that money back — or donating it to charity or something. But probably not.

Kind of Bloop album postered on Jay Maisel’s building
That’s the quote from the people who did the postering.
Look, even if you think Maisel was wrong, that it was fair use, etc., the idea of one person asserting his rights is not evil. I think our copyright system is broken, as well, but the idea that trying to protect your work (and that’s all Maisel was trying to do—protect his work) is evil is going to make more enemies than friends. (via jamiek)

Honestly? Jay Maisel was well within his rights to to assert copyright over the image given the law as it stands now. To me it was obviously a fair use transformative work. TO others? It was obviously infringement. That’s indicative of the broken system, and as much as I may hate it I don’t get to be the arbiter of what is right, legal, or good (and trust me, I do hate it sometimes).

What rankles me far far FAR more than anything else is the idea that Maisel considers him self a “purist” and “would never have granted a license for the pixel art”. Mr. Maisel spent creative energy on his work and he both deserves and is legally entitled to compensation for it’s use, but the idea that he has the sole say over whether or not someone can use his work in a new way or expand on it? That dog won’t hunt, Monsignor.

And this, by the way, is not a consequence of the Internet Revolution, although it has been exacerbated by it. Artists borrow and outright steal, copy, refine, and reinterpret. The very idea that someone who considers himself an artist can hold that opinion is mind-boggling to me. NOTE: I can understand WHY someone would want to exercise that kind of control. What amazes me is that anyone thinks that they actually have the power or the right to do so.

(via jamiek)

Source: kottke.org