US Postal Service to pay $ 3.5 million after using the wrong statue of Liberty on stamp

The sculptor Robert Davidson, He created the exemplary for the hotel and casino New York – New York, received the money after claiming that royalties were owed to him for the purpose. unauthorized use of an image of his statue on one of the most common postage stamps

USPS authorized a photo of the Las Vegas statue of the Getty Imaging Service for $ 1,500 (£ 1,100) believing that it was an image of the New York Monument on Liberty Island

The license covered the rights of photography but not the statue itself. even.

Its stamp "Forever" was released in December 2010 and it took four months before mishap. The postal service continued to use the stamp until January 2014.

M. Davidson continued, but the USPS argued that the Las Vegas statue was only a replica of a known statue and that the sculptor was not entitled to the protection of the right d & # 39; author.

He also argued that photography was permitted by the rule of fair use of copyright, as it considered the image of the slightly modified interpretation of the original statue by Mr. Davidson

the US Court of Federal Claims sits on the side of the sculptor, who said he was trying to make Lady Liberty "more feminine" and concluded that the changes were significant enough to give an originality to the sculptor's work , calling into question the postal service's argument.

USPS argued that Mr. Davidson owed no more than $ 10,000, but the artist argued that he owed him a percentage. for each

The court however focused on the 3.23% of the stamps that were sold but that were never used because they were lost or were held by collectors of stamps.

These stamps represented a profit "for the postal service because they were not used to send mail.

The postal service thought the photo was of the original statue in New York

Unused stamps yielded more than $ 70 million for the post office, the court granting Mr. Davidson a 5% royalty for each unused stamp plus $ 5,000 (£ 3,800) in damages. USPS would have reviewed the decision and has now put in place new procedures to avoid any similar incident. [19659022] [ad_2]
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