Comment | How much can one artist take from another before it is copyright infringement?

A commentary on a new Court of Justice of the European Union decision explains how the court has narrowed the copyright exception for “pastiche,” a ruling that could affect artistic appropriation across the EU. The decision stems from a long-running dispute involving German producer Moses Pelham, who sampled Kraftwerk in 1997 without permission, and it requires that a pastiche engage in an “artistic or creative dialogue” with the source while being noticeably different. The article notes that the definition could cover practices such as collage and mashups, citing Christian Marclay’s The Clock (2010) and Lubaina Himid’s Freedom and Change (1984), which references Picasso’s Two Women Running on the Beach (1922). It also raises the post-Brexit question of whether UK courts—where fair dealing for pastiche, parody, and caricature has existed since 2014—will adopt the EU’s “creative dialogue” approach, and compares the shift to US “fair use” emphasis on transformative meaning in cases involving artists like Jeff Koons and Richard Prince.

Read the full article at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events