Dust-up among Canadian cartoonists

Mike Peterson from The Daily Cartoonist.

A bit of a dust-up among Canadian cartoonists, after Dave Whamond’s commentary on the bloodbath controversy drew a slap-down from the mysterious “Rivers” who is permitted to distribute his cartoons through Cagle without signing his real name or explaining his exemption.

Mickey Mouse and the Public Domain

From Dave Alvarez Studios.

First of all, let me assure you that Disney has the Mouse very well protected and that their lawyers are sitting there, quietly waiting for someone to get out of line.

A gray line situation perhaps.

Supreme Court rules against Warhol Foundation

From The Washington Post.

Prince, photographed by Lynn Goldsmith in 1981

The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a photographer who claimed the late Andy Warhol should have honored her copyright on a photo of the rock star Prince when creating an iconic artistic image of the late singer.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court majority in the 7-2 decision, which legal experts said could carry far-reaching implications for copyright protection and so-called transformative art. 

The issue is the legal doctrine called “fair use,” which encourages artistic expression by allowing for the use of protected works without the original creator’s permission.

AI generated images

From Cartoonists Rights Network International Executive Director Terry Anderson.

Cartoon by Keyvan Varesi

Cartoonists are pushing back against so-called "a.i." with the class action lawsuit against DeviantArt, Midjourney and Stability AI now underway in the USA and a similar effort still being crowdfunded in Italy.

AI-Created Comic Deemed Ineligible for Copyright Protection

From CBR.

Reversing an earlier decision, the United States Copyright Office rules that a comic book made using A.I. art is ineligible for copyright protection.

Andy Warhol’s Image of Prince Before Supreme Court

From The Hollywood Reporter.

In a copyright battle with major implications, the justices heard arguments in a dispute over whether Andy Warhol’s alterations to a photograph of Prince should be considered a new work.

AI can now create any image in seconds

From The Washington Post.

None of these photos were taken by a camera. All of these images were created by the artificial intelligence text-to-image generator DALL-E. Named for Salvador Dali and Pixar’s WALL-E, DALL-E creates images based on prompts such as:

• “A hobbit house designed by Zaha [H]adid.”
• “A woman in a red coat looking up at the sky in the middle of Times Square.”
• “Red and yellow bell peppers in a bowl with a floral pattern on a green rug photo.”

Altered Cartoon Causing a Stir in Trenton

 From The Trentonian,

Original cartoon by Brian Fairrington

It's not the first time a politician was upset about a political cartoon.

But at-large councilman Jerell Blakeley said he felt an editorial satire that appeared on a local Facebook group went too far by calling for his assassination during a taut time in city politics.

When editorial cartoons become propaganda

From The Guardian.

When The Chronicle Herald’s editorial cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon learned this week that his work had been ripped off by some far-off politician, whom he had never heard of, his first reaction was, not again.

Carol Highsmith Sues Getty Images for $1 Billion

Carey Dunne in Hyperallergic.

Photo from "This is America!"

In December, documentary photographer Carol Highsmith received a letter from Getty Images accusing her of copyright infringement for featuring one of her own photographs on her own website.

It demanded payment of $120.

The Art of Circumventing Rigid Requirements

Michael Zhang in PetaPixel.

Illustration by Francis Desharnais for Le Soleil

The Washington City Post recently decided to boycott the Foo Fighters’ restrictive concert photo contract by buying photos from fans instead. Now a different paper is protesting that same contract in a much different way.

This past weekend, the Quebec newspaper Le Soleil decided to send a cartoon sketch artist to cover a Foo Fighters’ concert instead of putting a photographer in the media area.