American artist Jeff Koons fined for copyright infringement by French Court

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American artist Jeff Koons fined for copyright infringement by French Court

By Pallavi Paul

American artist Jeff Koons and the Centre Pompidou Museum was fined by the French Court for copyright infringement on the grounds of copying artist Davidovici’s photo which he had clicked for advertisement of a French fashion company called NAF-NAF. Jeff Koon’s sculpture was present at the Pompidou Museum which was a copy of the original photograph of Davidovici, thereby leading to violation of his moral rights. At first, to counter the infringement claim, Jeff Koon’s argued that the sculpture fell within the preview of parody. 

NEWS

By Pallavi Paul

The Court rejected the argument and stated that the advert was not effectively notorious for the sculpture to be regarded as a parody. After this, Jeff Koon’s tried to rely on the freedom of expression and fair use but Court rejected this appeal as well and stated the doctrine of ‘fair use’ simply does not exist in French law. French Court found Jeff Koon guilty of copyright infringement and ordered him and Pompidou Museum co-jointly to pay 207,000 Euros by way of damages and legal fees of co-defendants. On further appeal, the total amount was increased to 344,000 Euros which is quite high according to French standards.

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