EU court rules against Louis Vuitton in Nadia Plesner copyright case

Artist Nadia Plesner has prevailed in a copyright infringement lawsuit leveled by luxury handbag manufacturer Louis Vuitton for her use of the company's iconic bag in her painting Darfurnica (detail at right). A court in The Hague handed down its ruling this morning, finding that "the importance of Plesner (freedom of expression through her work) outweighs the importance of Vuitton (protection of property)" (according to a Google translation of a Dutch news story).

Vuitton was seeking a penalty of 5,000 Euros per day for each day her large-scale painting -- inspired by Picasso's Guernica, but created to raise awareness of the plight of people in Darfur, Sudan, and western indifference to it -- remained on her website. The company began its tally on Jan. 28. It also sought to prevent her from exhibiting the work online or in the European Union.

Plesner made headlines in 2008 when Vuitton sued her for using the image of a Darfurian boy with an Audra handbag in t-shirts. Plesner has since started a foundation to raise funds to help people in Darfur, Tanzania, Uganda and elsewhere, and the attention of this most recent suit -- which has garnered headlines in newspapers and blogs worldwide (not to mention the eye of street artists) -- will surely help boost the profile of those efforts.

According to a Danish news report, Louis Vuitton -- which posted profits of $28.26 billion last year -- has been ordered by The Hague to pay Plesner's legal costs.

Plesner, who gave her defense at The Hague on April 21, wrote on her website when the suit was filed, "The story about Darfur must be told, and I believe I should have my artistic freedom of speech to do so." The Hague, sensibly, concurred.

Update: Nadia Plesner on Louis Vuitton case: "This is a great day for art."

(Thanks to the commenter who tipped me off about the decision.)

Nadia Plesner/Louis Vuitton copyright hearing moved to Apr. 20

Nadia Plesner, the Danish artist being sued for copyright infringement by Louis Vuitton for using a rendering of a handbag in her Darfur painting, writes in to say the first hearing on the case, originally scheduled for today in The Hague, was moved yesterday to the afternoon of April 20. She writes:

The reason is that last week we challenged the assigned judge since it was the same judge who gave the court order in the first place. We feel like he can not be impartial, since ruling in my favor would mean that he would have to admit making several severe mistakes.

So last Monday we had a court hearing about this and the three judges listened to us! They think there might be reason to assign a different judge and they scheduled a new hearing for this coming Monday. Then it will be decided who will judge my case on April 20.

It feels like a small victory that they even consider it.

Louis Vuitton lawsuit against Nadia Plesner inspires Dutch street artist; first hearing set for Mar. 30

A copyright infringement lawsuit by luxury goods brand Louis Vuitton against Danish artist Nadia Plesner has taken to the streets in Maastricht, The Netherlands. Plesner was sued by the company in 2008 for selling t-shirts to benefit Darfur that bore the image of a Sudanese child holding a chihuahua and one of Vuitton's iconic bags. Earlier this year the company sued her again for using the image in a giant painting, scaled to match Picasso's Guernica and called Darfurnica. Vuitton's suit filed in The Hague lists penalties of 5,000 Euros per day for each day the image remains on her site.

Now street artist Little Louis writes in that the "starved little boy carrying a Chihuahua and a fashion bag has grown to a height of seven meters on the facade" of a building at the cultural free zone The Landbouwbelang. The image differs from Plesner's original in one key way: the Vuitton bag is left blank, so artists can use it as a canvas for their own messages.

While there are some news reports that Vuitton is willing to settle the case, Plesner calls such stories an attempt by the company "to disinform the media by stating that it is all a big misunderstanding and they never had any problem with my painting Darfurnica and are willing to drop the case." She continues:

First of all, and let me be very clear on this point: we explicitly asked Louis Vuitton to lift the ex parte court order. They have refused and continue to refuse to lift the order. If that position changes that would of course be great but so far it has not.

Second, Louis Vuitton specifically asked and got a prohibition on me exhibiting (offline and online) or selling any image of the little boy with the bag, as incorporated in my works Simple Living and the painting Darfurnica. There can thus be no "misunderstanding". The fact that they suddenly act as if there is no problem at all and are willing to "leave it at this" seems to be an attempt to pacify the media, while at the same time they continue the battle against me outside the eyes of the media. "Leaving it at this" means that the court order and the penalties remain.

On Mar. 17, Plesner filed her own counter-suit against Vuitton (read it here) aimed at getting the court's order against her lifted. She argues that the order is an "unacceptable infringement on [her] right to freedom of speech" and a "gross violation of the right to a fair trial," both of which should be afforded her by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The first hearing on the case is Mar. 30.

Louis Vuitton sues artist Nadia Plesner -- again -- for using handbag image in Darfur art

Darfurnica (detail), Nadia Plesner, 2010

Danish artist Nadia Plesner got in hot water with Louis Vuitton in 2008 for depicting an African child with one of its high-end bags on one arm and a chihuahua in the other (below) as part of her campaign urging divestment from Sudan over the conflict in Darfur. Now the company is suing her again: this time, the luxury goods company has filed a copyright infringement suit at The Hague that will penalize her 5,000 Euros for each day a likeness of its Audra bag in her painting Darfurnica remains on her website. The company has been tallying her penalty since Jan. 28.

"The story about Darfur must be told, and I believe I should have my artistic freedom of speech to do so," Plesner writes on her website.

Whereas the first legal kerfuffle with Vuitton ended in mid-2008 with Plesner agreeing to stop selling t-shirts bearing the handbag image, this time Plesner's art is not merchandise to be sold but a work of fine art. Created to the same dimensions as painter Pablo Picasso's Guernica, a 1937 polemic against the carpet-bombing of the Basque town of the same name, the idea for Plesner's piece hinged on news that officials decided to shroud Picasso's famed painting in blue cloth during a 2003 UN press conference on the Iraq War by John Negroponte and Colin Powell.

"It is amazing that an art work can be considered so powerful, that it has to be covered up while governments present their plans," Plesner writes. "It only proves that artists around the world must continue to work with the harsh issues to influence the people with power and to start important debates."

That same year -- 2003 -- the genocide in Darfur started, she writes. "Politicians come up with new ways to try to hide from us that things stay the same."

Despite a clearly artistic -- and not commercial -- intention behind the work, Louis Vuitton is seeking monetary penalties (220,000 Euros or roughly $307,000 and counting, with no ceiling on the penalty) and aims to prevent Plesner from exhibiting the painting either on her website or at venues in the European Union. (Here's an unofficial English translation of the court order.)

Plesner, who now runs a foundation that raises funds for projects like sending medical equipment to Darfur or buying a vehicle for use at an orphanage in Tanzania, is lawyering up for her defense. Her opponents won't need a fundraiser for its legal efforts: Louis Vuitton -- aka LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton -- had profits of $28.26 billion last year, and its chairman, Bernard Arnault, rose on Forbes' billionaires list to world's fourth-richest man, with a net worth of $41 billion.

But Plesner reportedly has an unorthodox ally. According to media reports and an image posted at Reddit (.png file), the hacktivist group Anonymous is launching a campaign against the company. The goal is to use "any non-physically violent method available to us to cause financial damage to Louis Vuitton."

Big words? Perhaps, but Anonymous has reportedly been successful in launching distributed denial of service attacks against various entities, bringing down the websites of BMI (for its "war on copyright"), Americans for Prosperity (the anti-union group funded by the Koch Brothers that's been active in Wisconsin in recent weeks) and VISA and Mastercard (for the company shutting out Wikileaks), among others.

Update: Louis Vuitton lawsuit against Nadia Plesner inspires Dutch street artist; first hearing set for Mar. 30

Update: On May 4, 2011, the court in The Hague ruled against Louis Vuitton, finding that "the importance of [Plesner's work] outweighs the importance of Vuitton (protection of property)." An elated Plesner tells Eyeteeth, "Today is a great day for art."

Louis Vuitton sues one copyright infringer, hires another

Anaba writes that Louis Vuitton -- the luxury bag-maker that's suing a designer for copyright infringement for using a likeness of one of its totes in a Darfur benefit piece -- has also collaborated with artist Richard Prince on a bag. Much of Prince's work is overtly about the appropriation of corporate imagery (most famously, Marlboro ads). The Walker Art Center, where Prince now has a show, says the artist has built a career on "recycling, reflecting, and reframing photographs, cartoons, advertisements, and other images already existing in the public sphere." Sounds awfully familiar...

Anaba also links to a New York Times piece on photographer Jim Krantz, who shot many of the Marlboro ads Prince rephotographed. Prince wouldn't comment on Krantz's increasing annoyance at Prince's uncredited use of his work. In an email to the Times' author, he wrote, "I never associated advertisements with having an author." I suspect Vuitton would have a very different view of the "authorship" of its handbags.

Vuitton bullies artist over Darfur image

Taylor reports that designer Nadia Plesner is getting sued by Louis Vuitton for showing the likeness of a Vuitton bag in a campaign to encourage divestment from Darfur. As a Vuitton lawyer claims in a February cease-and-desist letter, the bag pictured is the Monogram Multicolore, created by Vuitton art director Marc Jacobs and artist Takashi Murakami. "As an artist yourself, we hope that you recognize the need to respect other artists' rights and Louis Vuitton's Intellectual Property rights," the attorney wrote. Plesner, probably aware that artist's like Murakami have the right to appropriate and satirize the work of others, lawyered up and refused. Now, according to TechDirt, Vuitton is "demanding $7,500 for each day she keeps selling the product, $7,500 for each day she displays its original cease-and-desist letter and (my favorite) $7,500 for each day she mentions the name 'Louis Vuitton' on her website."

"Sometimes recognizable objects are needed to express deeper meanings, and in their new form become more than the objects themselves -- they become art," Plesner wrote in her response to Vuitton's initial letter. Indeed, as Sudanese troops and affiliated militias mow down civilians in Darfur -- as many as 300,000 have died there, according to a new estimate -- the culture of consumption in the west, represented aptly by this particular bag (which retails for $1,580 on the company's website), stands in stark contrast.

Plesner, hopefully boosted in her efforts by the suit, says she'll continue with her "Simple Living" series, which both raises awareness of the genocide in Darfur and generates funds -- 30 percent of sales -- to its victims.

Update: Vuitton has collaborated with artist Richard Prince, whose celebrated work includes Marlboro ads he re-photographs, without crediting the original photographer.

Update 03.13.11: Louis Vuitton sues artist Nadia Plesner -- again -- for using handbag image in Darfur art

Update 05.04.11: EU court rules against Louis Vuitton in Nadia Plesner copyright case