Ars Technica: The rights holders of tattoos on NBA superstars Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and other professional basketball players are suing Take-Two Interactive, alleging that the maker of the NBA 2K video game series and other titles is infringing their artwork. The federal copyright infringement lawsuit accuses the video game maker of copyright violations because it has not licensed the tattoos from Solid Oak Sketches.
2 comments:
Interesting... This article brought me to the question: who owns a tattoo? The artist or the client? If Kobe is fine with his body and comfortable with his tattoos being shown, isn't that his choice?
I have always been interested in tattoos and tattoo culture, and that's one problem that is very prevalent: people finding images of other people's tattoos on the Internet or something and having another artist copy them. In that case, who are they ripping off? The designer of the tattoo (the client) or the creator?
In my opinion, the designers of the tattoos could have been compensated. They would have likely been contacted during the game development process in order for the animators to recreate the images, so they would have been providing a service. But, I could understand an argument for someone owning the art that is on their body, and only as their own. Weird issue.
I've really never considered the fact that anyone could own a tattoo other than the person who's body it's on. I can completely understand that the artists would want credit for their work, so I can see why this case is an issue. Technically the video game companies are making a profit off their work, which is fundamentally wrong. However, I can also see how the video game companies are right. As the work is a part of the players' bodies now, as long as they have permission from them then they should be able to accurately recreate them. Both of these arguments are equally valid, but personally I have to side more with the video game companies. Provided proper credit is given to the artists I think they should be able to use the art in their games, as ultimately the players are the owners of their own skin.
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