The trial involving world-renowned artist Kat Von D is in process, all of it being centered around whether the jury can decide on claims that Von D allegedly violated the fair use doctrine in allegedly replicating parts of a famous Miles Davis portrait. Von D was present in court on January 23rd when the trial kicked off. The trial focuses on a photo taken in 1989 by photographer Jeffrey Sedlik where he captured jazz star Miles Davis looking directly into a camera with his finger held to his lips mimicking a “shh” motion. According to Loudwire, the photo originally appeared on the cover of JAZZIZ magazine in 1989, and Sedlik registered a trademark on the photo with the U.S. Copyright Office in 1994.
The legal conflict started when Von D posted a picture to her Instagram account that showcased a portrait tattoo of Miles Davis’s on her friend Blake Farmer’s arm. The 2017 post was captioned “Can’t believe this is the first time I’ve gotten to tattoo a portrait of #MilesDavis. Thank you Blake for letting me tattoo you!” The tattoo caught the attention of Sedlik who would end up filing a lawsuit claiming Von D allegedly replicated his copyrighted photo through a tattoo.
In the trial, Kat Von D‘s defense via her lawyer is that she did not replicate the portrait identically therefore the photo’s copyrighted elements were not replicated and not used for commercial purposes. The opposing side of Sedlik is claiming that the tattoo allegedly “infringed on his copyrighted work based on alleged unauthorized reproduction, distribution, display, and derivative use” due to Von D’s post accumulating 100,000 likes.
Photo Credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva
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