Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/08/03/90-year-old-fills-in-90000-c.html
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Splendid. We haven’t had a good ‘What is Art?’ debate in ages. I’m just going to rustle up a quick bowl of pasta for dinner, BRB. Have at it!
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The Monkey Jesus defense, eh?
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They say there’s no defense like a good offense.
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Okay, I can see how someone might be confused and think that “Insert Words” was a serious invitation to fill in the crossword.
But claiming the copyright on the “collaborative artwork” takes this lady from “clueless” up to “reprehensible.”
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“Art is just the last three letters of fart.” --Gibby Haynes
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He says that far from harming the work in question, his client has increased its value by bringing the relatively-unknown Köpcke to the attention of a wider public.
I am still desperately trying to understand how/why publicity of anything supposedly increases “value”. Isn’t that like claiming that people with megaphones are more important, so you should listen to them? It sounds like a fantasy of broadcast media.
her “invigorating re-working” of the exhibit
Is that what the 90-year-old kids are calling it these days?
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In this case, it seems the unstoppable force of imbeciles in public has met the immovable object that is pretentious concept art.
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A 90 year old wrecking your art then claiming copyright = “troll” personified.
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Police rushed to the scene and questioned the senior citizen, whose name has been released as Hannelore K.
Hmmm… what’s a 9 letter word for “both greedy and senile”? Starts with “H”…
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Wait, does copyright even work like that? Nobody’s trying to copy her work, display it (quite the opposite) distribute or perform it, or create a derivative work.
Even if we grant that she had a copyright claim, I don’t see how that protects the work from erasure. As far as I know, that’s just not a thing.
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Yet another reason why we can’t have nice things. 
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step back, germany – this is the US’s kind of batshit opportunism. it’s our turf!
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Don’t forget that the famous urinal was signed “R Mutt”.
I’m still surprised the urinal manufacturer didn’t sue Duchamp for using his intellectual property without attribution.
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Now, in the States, she’d have a claim in the basis of hostile occupancy. Not sure what German law has to say about it. But even so, she’d have had to maintain her “collaborative addition” for 7 years before having a valid claim.
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From a brief google of the artist in question, it strikes me that he may very well have found this absolutely hilarious.
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the lawyer argued her copyright* was violated as the museum removed her additions
* but I’m quite sure the few letters she inserted are below the threshold of originality (or however one would translate the German legal term “Schöpfungshöhe”) so she did not create a copyrightable work (“Werk”)
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Oh, great. Now urinals will come with shrink wrap licenses requiring attribution.
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I think we have a new definition of Chutzpah here.
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