Greetings!

On September 14, Berkeley Law alum and lecturer Paul Clark will speak on the work of Frances Gearhart, one of the most important American color block print artists of the early 20th century. The lecture, hosted at the Women’s Faculty Club, will start at 4:00 pm, followed by a reception. Reservations required. RSVP here>

The Art, Law, and Finance project has a website! It contains past issues of Canvas, academic research, links to past Symposia containing on-demand recordings of panel sessions, and more. In case you weren’t able to attend the second annual Symposium this year, here’s a taste of what you missed. The Symposium was covered by Law360 and by Berkeley Law.

This month we highlight news on financial fraud, international law, Indigenous American repatriation, social justice, the future of art degrees in Afghanistan, and more.

Delia Violante
Berkeley Center for Law and Business
Mark T. Duffy - When is Doomsday? - 54 x 70 inches, oil on canvas, 2022
Berkeley Law Faculty Corner

Professor Pamela Samuelson discusses a study she conducted examining recent lawsuits initiated by artists and writers that highlight the controversial nature of generative AI. The study focuses on “innovation arbitrage” — the idea that generative AI developers may move jurisdictions to seek preferable regulatory conditions. The study also looks at actions taken by Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office regarding the use of copyrighted works in generative AI. Read more>

In Reflections on Music Copyrright Justice, Professor Peter Menell argues that the digital revolution has upended many aspects of the copyright system, particularly as it relates to music. Drawing on creative, jurisprudential, technological, and social science insights, his article explores the broad range of music copyright justice concerns, ranging from file sharing to royalty distribution, copyright infringement standards, and the creation of music mashups. This article was judged one of the best law review articles related to entertainment, publishing and/or the arts published within the last year by the editors of the Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts Handbook, an anthology published annually by Thomson Reuters (West). Read more>
Berkeley Law Students Corner

Third year Berkeley Law student Dallin Johnson makes the case for the copyrightability of some AI-generated artworks, arguing that platforms like DALL•E are analogous to paintbrushes, cameras, Adobe Photoshop, and other tools that have sped up the creative process. Read more>
Benchmark Ruling: Rothschild v. Hermès

In a follow-up to a landmark case, Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York has enjoined Mason Rothschild and his associates from producing MetaBirkin NFTs, thus granting the request of Hermès and supporting the jury’s unanimous decision that was made back in February. Artnet - Read More>
Court Says No Human Author, No Copyright

Heather Whitney, a San Francisco-based attorney at Morrison Foerster wrote an insightful article on the Thaler v. Perlmutter decision and ongoing uncertainty about copyright protection for genAI outputs. Read more>
Report Alert: Fractional Ownership Monitor

We have seen a flurry of activity in the art and fractional ownership space in the first half of this year. The third edition of ArtTactic's Fractional Ownership Monitor provides an overview. Read more>
Report Alert: The Artnet Intelligence Report

Artnet has introduced a new report, which is intended as a semi-annual overview of goings-on in the market for fine art. The inaugural issue includes an overview of the spring auctions and an analysis of the current state of the post-Covid market. Artnet - Read more>
Collector and Art Market at Odds

Known as a deep-pocketed, 'aggressive’ Chinese collector, Ding Yixiao has now been blacklisted by the Art Market. What happened? Artnet - Read more>
The Art of Stealing

Frenchman Stéphane Breitwieser stole hundreds works of art with an estimated value of $2 billion from as many as 200 museums all over Europe. The New Yorker - Read more>
Art Fraudsters Erratic Sentencing

Recent high-profile cases, such as those of Daniel Elie Bouaziz and Angela Gulbenkian, demonstrate that lengths of sentences vary widely, with little consistency in judges’ reasoning. The Art Newspaper - Read more>
Report Alert: Conflict over Repatriation of Indigenous American Remains

A program of government grants intended to encourage repatriation of indigenous American remains and burial artifacts has accomplished just the opposite according to a new ProPublica investigation.. Read more>
Stolen Works of Art Returned to Italy

A New York district attorney announced the return to Italy of 42 valuable works of art following a lengthy investigation. The cumulative value of the works, some of which date back more than 2,500 years, is estimated at $3.5 million. The European Conservative - Read more>
Banksy's Non-Disclosure Agreement

Banksy is now the subject of his first authorized exhibition in 14 years – and not even the organizers at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow have ever met or spoken to the artist. CBSNews - Read more>
Unesco Lists Venice Endangered

Unesco is adding Venice to its "World Heritage Sites in Danger" list due to the Italian government’s failure to produce a plan to protect it and manage its tourism. In contrast, WIRED recently suggested letting Venice sink leaving the ruins as a monument to the dangers of global warming. The Art Newspaper - Read more>
The Return of the Wounded Indian

After a decades-long ownership dispute, the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA, will return the 19th-century sculpture "Wounded Indian" to a Boston organization founded by Paul Revere. The New York Times - Read more>
Istanbul's Biennial Needs Transparency

The rejection of Defne Ayas as curator of the 2024 Istanbul biennial in favor of Iwona Blazwick reveals the increasing limitations of artistic freedom in Turkey. ArtReview - Read more>
Protecting SF Art Institute Archives

The historic archive of the SF Art Institute, which was removed to the custody of an off-site foundation as the defunct school was filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, may have to be returned and possibly liquidated. San Francisco Chronicle - Read More>
Museum Sued for Copyright and Moral Rights Infringement

Vancouver-based writer, poet and translator Yilin Wang is suing the British Museum for copyright and moral rights infringement over the unauthorized use of her translations in an exhibition of Chinese art and poetry. The Art Newspaper - Read More>
What Abortion Looks Like

Artist Carmen Winant's exhibition "The last safe abortion," at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, gives a strong voice to reproductive health and justice. "It was really important for me to put 'abortion' in the title of the show. I believe in 'reproductive health care' and 'justice' and so forth, but I feel like sometimes you have to name it." Vanity Fair - Read More>
Art Education Suffers Under Taliban

Art degrees in Afghanistan are gradually disappearing from institutions as the Taliban’s restrictions deter students and scholars from entering higher education. The Art Newspaper - Read More>
Heist at the Museum

Federal authorities have released charges against nine people who were involved in a series of museum heists from 1999 to 2019, during which they looted Pollock and Warhol paintings, and Yogi Berra’s World Series rings, which were believed to have been melted down. RollingStone - Read More>
Beeple's NFT: FTX Board Meeting Censored by YouTube

The image of an orgy in an office setting—a satire of the downfall of banking entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried—was allegedly blocked by YouTube due to nudity. The Art Newspaper - Read More>
When Art Meets Nature

Seattle-based artist Neil Buckland partners with geologist Tony Irving to launch an extraterrestrial collaboration. Wired - Read More>
AI Will Make Human Art More Valuable

If history is any indication, society will continue to favor the artistic output of human beings over machines. Wired - Read More>
Meet the Artist: Mark T. Duffy

Mark T. Duffy is a self taught artist living in Oakland, CA. At the age of 30 he began exploring creativity to express and process experience. He has little formal training and has developed a painting process through long term experimentation. He’s interested in how power, authority, and freedom affect human suffering. When he’s not feeling too irreverent about the world, he thinks the function of art is to generate hope and emancipatory action. In early 2023 he exhibited a solo show titled When is Doomsday? at / (pronounced Slash), a non-profit visual art space with the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco, CA. He is currently working on a project about generational trauma, informed by existential ethics and phenomenology. Read More>
If you are new here, like what you see and want to keep receiving this newsletter in the future, make sure to subscribe here.
Support the Berkeley Center for Law and Business as it organizes programs
and sponsors critical research in law and business.