Is it illegal to commercially modify and use on the Internet a photograph of a wall with graffiti artwork and would you need to attribute the artwork to an anonymous artist?

Answer 1

There are some who may apply the following logic: "I'm not an attorney but I imagine it depends on who owns the wall. "If the graffiti is on a public building and is illegal then it's probably not copyrighted, but if it's on the side of some guy's shop it might be legally no different than hanging a painting. "Either way if you digitally manipulate it enough you can get around any copyright issues, but I don't know what you have in mind." The preliminary answer above ignores the basic law of copyright, which has little to do with the law of vandalism or legality of the process of creativity. Would a painting be less copyrightable because the artist has stolen the canvas upon which it is created? No. In fact, someone else may "own" the original edition of a work without having any ownership of the copyright itself. The owner of the illicit work on his property may destroy (or sell), but may not modify, the original. Yes, modification (or copying for commercial use) would violate the copyright of the original graffiti authors' works in the visual art, and photographer's rights in the photograph. Exploitation of the works of other for commercial advantage could (in theory) trigger criminal or civil charges. There are nice policy questions of whether it is in the public interest to protect such creativity, but that would be for federal courts and legislators to decide. Also, unless you properly attribute authorship of works made by others you will be guilty of plagiarism (implying that you were the author). This is usually only an ethical dilemma, unless you work for an institution that is subject to regulations against plagiarism. In practice, it is unlikely that vandals would register their copyright and sue you, or that a photographer would recognize his or her own work in a stock photograph of a public place. But it is VERY likely that plagiarism will be caught when widely distributed on the internet. As for the issue of "digitally manipulate it enough", the question would be whether there remains any copyrighted content from the original and if its use would amount to an infringement, assuming anyone knows or cares.