Source: http://the1709blog.blogspot.com/2010/08/it-is-fact-universally-acknowledged-at.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 08:20:43+00:00

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As that leaves the overwhelming majority of works out in the cold, the cases where § 106A is invoked are few and far between. However, a highly interesting lawsuit relying on § 106A is currently before the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The Plaintiff is David Ascalon, a renowned sculptor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ascalon). The Defendants are the Department for Parks and Recreation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (“DPRH”), the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg (“Federation”), and David Grindle, an artist and/or restorer. In the early 1990s, the Federation and the DPRH decided to create a memorial site to honour the victims of the Holocaust. Mr Ascalon submitted the winning entry for a commemorative sculpture, which was duly made and erected on the site. It consisted of a shining stainless steel core in the shape of a Star of David, around which was wrapped a serpentine shaped structure of a darker and wearing type of steel. The shining stainless steel, suggesting permanence, represented the Jewish people and their endurance under unimaginable suffering. The rusting steel structure represented the barbed wire fences of the Nazi death camps, implying oppression, decay and misery.
I suppose by grinding off Mr Ascalon’s name the Defendants successfully avoided violation of § 106A(a)(2). Nice.
Distortion? Oh yes. Mutilation? I should think so. But now the old Article 6bis BC problem raises its ugly head once more: Does “prejudicial to his honor or reputation” only refer to modifications or also to distortions and mutilations? Most courts and commentators agree that the better view is that the prejudice requirement applies in all cases. VARA does not define the terms “prejudicial,” “honor,” or “reputation,” but I have no doubt that it would be harmful to Mr Ascalon’s honour and reputation in artistic circles if anyone were led to believe that he agreed to the changes made to his work. But since his name does not appear on the sculpture anymore (and he is demanded to cease and desist from referencing his work), is the modified sculpture still capable of being prejudicial to his honour or reputation? Or can anyone distort and mutilate a work to their heart’s content as long as they at the same time disassociate the author from it? Gilliam v American Broadcasting Company 538 F.2d 14 (1976) springs to mind, where Judge Gurfein pointed out that the Lanham Act would do nothing for the Plaintiffs if the Defendants had clearly labelled the truncated versions of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” as not in keeping with what the Plaintiffs had intended. § 106A(a)(3)(B) might not be the answer either. While no prejudice to honour and reputation is required, as the work, though probably of “recognized stature”, arguably was not destroyed but merely damaged (I assume it is not beyond repair).
A further complication stems from § 106A(c)(2), pursuant to which the modification of a work of visual art which is the result of conservation is not a destruction, distortion, mutilation, or other modification unless the modification is caused by gross negligence.” It will be interesting to see what the court makes of this case. Moral rights are an extension of the author’s personality and VARA is supposed to protect “both the reputation of certain visual artists and the works of art they create” (House Report, 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 6915). In my view that implies rather more than a law against misrepresentation like the Lanham Act, and it should not be possible to circumvent § 106A(a)(3) by removing the author’s name and otherwise trying to disassociate him from his work.
Actualy this sort of thing is not all that new . A minor Italian mannerist artist spent most of his professional life derided as the 'painter of underpants' because in the purer than thou atmosphere of the counter reformation he was employed by the Vatican to paint over the rude bits of many of Michelangelo's more well endowed figures.
Not sure that law can really do that much with the breathtaking but all to common petty boorish rudeness of the groups that wrecked their own communities monument. I would guess that there was a faction in the community that were never happy with the original choice. There are plenty of opposite examples of architects /artists blocking needed modifications to public buildings . The Moral rights resulted in years of delay on extensions to the National Gallery of Australia.
Personally- once I have sold a picture I accept that the owner can do with it pretty much as he pleases.
You want me to pay?

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