By John Paul Benitez & Coco Soodek, Attorneys at Law

Several months ago, the American Watercolor Society awarded its 2008 Gold Medal to Sheryl Luxenburg for the work Impermanence (pictured above), a hyper-realistic painting of an old man juxtaposed with a rotting piece of fence. Luxenburg’s prize-winning work consisted of emulations of two stock photographs. Employing a pointillist’s technique, Ms. Luxenburg blew up the two stock images and used the enlarged pixilations to guide her brush.

A series of spontaneous, vigorous debates erupted on the Web about Luxenburg’s conduct and entitlement to the prize. Many people assumed that Impermanence infringed on the copyrights of the stock photographers and, therefore, should be disqualified.

These assumptions about infringement and about ways to avoid it underscore a persistent and confusing question for the pop or mixed-media artist: When do you cross the line into copyright infringement?

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By John Paul Benitez, Attorney at Law

The San Fransico Gate has some reservations anointing as "art" scientific imagery created for the lab, not the studio. Displayed in "Brought to Light: Photography and the Invisible, 1840-1900" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, photographs created using x-rays and advances in photo chemistry are serving double duty as lessons in art (not scientific) history. VARA which apply to photographs (as "works of visual art") be of any use – since the images were not "created for exhibition purposes only."

Does copyright law think any different?

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By William F. Zieske & Coco Soodek, Attorneys at Law

Whether a publisher asks you to create an image specifically for the publication (as for illustrating a book or article), or to publish an image of one of your pre-existing works, there are questions that can be awkward to address, but foolish to ignore. When you are faced with entering into a contract with your publisher, it is wise to remember: Clarity is King.

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By John Paul Benitez, Attorney at Law

Collaborating with another artist may generate a masterpiece, and it may also produce a mess. When more than one artist is an "author" of a work, the normal expectations about ownership and copyright get skewed. If two or more people create works, intending to put them together in a single cohesive work, the resulting collaborative piece is a "joint work."

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