Where Do You Draw the Line?
Posted by: Russ Conway
in Cities & Towns
on February 14, 2009 
Anyone downtown this week may have noticed the Shepard Fairey mural that appeared on the side of the Mercantile Building on Washington St, unfortunately and I guess ironically slightly marred before my coworker could snap the photo (a bit hard to see in the pic).
Today, I walked up to find workers from the Downtown Improvement District removing other graffiti from the building. I didn't have much time to consider this before two coatless and anxious AS220 folks arrived to ensure the mural stayed up. Yes, not everyone's upset, especially these guys.
I love Fairey's stuff and come in squarely with the artist, but others take issue with his "image problem", most recently this run in with the AP.
The question is "how much leeway do we give a second-comer when they want to use someone else's original creation," said Michael Kahn, who teaches a course on censorship and free expression at Washington University School of Law and has represented artists and Fortune 500 companies in copyright disputes. "This would make a terrific question on a law school exam."
So how about it? Where do you "draw" the line?
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