Miro

A brief update to my brief post on Google's celebration of Miro's birthday (from Diglet):

Google takes down Miro logo art

Artist's family asks Google to take down 'painted' logo

The family of Joan Miro and the Artists Rights Society, a group that represents the Miro family and more than 40,000 visual artists and their estates, asked Google to remove the Miro-esque google logo -- which google put up to celebrate the anniversary of Miro's birthday. Google quickly complied. But the thing that stuck out at me was this little quote:

In September, the Authors Guild sued Google for reproducing works in it's "library project'" that were still under the protection of copyright. In a news release, Authors Guild president Nick Taylor called the project, "a plain and brazen'' violation of copyright law.

"It's not up to Google or anyone other than authors, the rightful owners of these copyrights, to decide whether and how their works will be copied,'' Taylor said.

Maybe Taylor needs to read Title 17 regarding Fair Use again. Google took down the image, but I believe these copyright holders' organizations (that includes MPAA and RIAA) are pushing the boundaries of copyright in order to kill fair use and the public domain. Cornell University Law School's Legal Information Institute and Stanford Libraries fair use site offer much information and background on the topic of copyright.