Danish court ups fine for Little Mermaid copyright violation

[veu]

Source: cphpost.dk/?p=131140

Supreme Court upholds newspaper fine for using Little Mermaid image
Berlingske the latest to fall foul of Edvard Eriksen’s heirs

Edvrad EriksenEdvard Eriksen unveiled the Little Mermaid statue in 1913 after Carl Jocobson asked him to make it in 1909.
February 11th, 2022 10:01 am| by Armelle Delmelle

Everybody in Copenhagen knows her; the Little Mermaid is a national treasure in the eyes of many people. It’s the ultimate symbol of the Danish capital.

There is just one small detail that most people don’t know: you have to pay royalties to use a photograph of it to illustrate its national treasure status.

And Berlingske’s editor-in-chief has just learned that the hard way.

The Østre Landsret high court had already ruled that the newspaper should pay compensation of 300,000 kroner for twice using the statue’s image. One of them was in a cartoon!

A district court had previously set the payment at 285,000, and now the Supreme Court has upheld the 300,000 fine.

It’s good news for the heirs of Edvard Eriksen, who created the sculpture between 1909 and 1913.

Not a first
This case is just one of many, in fact. The Eriksen clan are experts at asking for royalties.

The work of Eriksen, who passed away in 1959, is protected for 70 years after his death.

His heirs will lose their rights to royalties in 2029, at which point the image of the Little Mermaid will be in the public domain. Until then they are free to ask for royalties from anyone who uses the statue’s image when it is not integral to the story.

Laws that apply (almost) everywhere
The laws that protect works of art are written into international treaties and conventions.

This means that if you commercially use a picture of a monument outside of Denmark, you could end up being asked for royalties too.

A good example of it is the Eiffel Tower in Paris. If you photograph it by day, there is no problem. By night, however, the copyright for the light work only dates back to 1985.

[veu]

Source: www.techdirt.com/articles/20220209/11032848441/danish-court-confirms-insane-little-mermaid-copyright-ruling-against-newspaper-over-cartoon.shtml

Danish Court Confirms Insane 'Little Mermaid' Copyright Ruling Against Newspaper Over Cartoon

Fri, Feb 11th 2022 7:39pm — Timothy Geigner

If you haven't been a long time Techdirt reader, you'll probably hear me say that there is a copyright infringement court case in Denmark and immediately wonder, "Yeesh, what did Disney do now?" But this is not a story about Disney. This is a story about the heirs of Edvard Eriksen, creator of a bronze statue of The Little Mermaid, inspired by the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, and their inability to let anyone in any way depict the statue or anything similar without being accosted in copyright actions. Most of the bullying actions by Eriksen's heirs have been, unbelievably, against other towns throughout the world for creating their own Little Mermaid statues: Greenville, Michigan and the Danish city of Asaa for example.

But less known are all the times Eriksen's heirs have gone after publications for showing pictures or other depictions of the statue. I won't pretend to be an expert in Danish copyright law, but if that country's laws are such that a newspaper or magazine cannot show a picture of one of the country's most famous landmarks, then that law is silly and should be changed or amended. Lest you think I must have this wrong, you can see a recent story of, not one, but two courts ruling that a newspaper must compensate Eriksen's heirs for a cartoon that depicted the statue on its pages.

An appeals court in Denmark has increased the compensation a newspaper was ordered to pay for violating the copyright of Copenhagen's The Little Mermaid statue with a cartoon depicting the bronze landmark as a zombie and a photo of it with a facemask.

The Berlingske newspaper published the cartoon in 2019 to illustrate an article about the debate culture in Denmark and used the photo in 2020 to represent a link between the far right and people fearing COVID-19.

For those of us reading this news in America, as well as many other nations, this all looks completely laughable. This is purely free speech stuff, protected in America by the First Amendment. Even getting past that, a cartoon of a statue is not a recreation of that statue, therefore copyright wouldn't even really apply. Plus it's parody and being used for commentary. Nothing about this makes sense.

And, yet, it must in Denmark because this 2nd court not only affirmed the ruling of the lower court but actually increased the compensation the newspaper was ordered to pay Eriksen's heirs.

Both were found to be infringements of the Danish Copyright Act. Copenhagen’s district court ordered the newspaper in 2020 to pay the heirs of Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen 285,000 kroner ($44,000) in compensation. The appeals court on Wednesday raised the amount to 300,000 kroner ($46,000).

In a statement, the Eastern High Court in the Danish capital agreed with the lower court that “there was a violation of copyright" in the newspaper's actions. It did not give a reason for increasing the compensation amount but noted that Berlingske is a commercial venture since it wants to sell newspapers.

Again, this is all absurd. If the above rulings truly do comport with Danish copyright law, then all that suggests is that there needs to be an active movement in Denmark to amend the law. And, just to make this all the more frustrating, the copyright protections in Denmark are familiar: 70 years after the death of the author. In this case, that means Eriksen's heirs will only have this ability to bilk others for cash payments for the statue for another seven years.

[veu]

Source: tt.loopnews.com/content/danish-court-ups-fine-little-mermaid-copyright-violation-5

Danish court ups fine for Little Mermaid copyright violation
Loop News February 9, 2022 11:08 AM ET

An appeals court in Denmark has increased the fine imposed on a newspaper for violating the copyright of Copenhagen's The Little Mermaid statue by publishing a cartoon depicting the bronze landmark as a zombie and a photo of it with a facemask.

The Berlingske newspaper published the cartoon in 2019 to illustrate an article about the debate culture in Denmark and used the photo in 2020 to represent a link between the far right and people fearing COVID-19.

Both were found to be infringements of the Danish Copyright Act. Copenhagen's district court fined the newspaper 285,000 kroner ($44,000) in November 2020. The appeals court on Wednesday raised the fine to 300,000 kroner ($46,000).

Berlingske's chief editor, Tom Jensen, had appealed the district court's ruling, calling the fine "completely out of proportion and far, far too high." Jensen argued the paper had used the image of The Little Mermaid for non-commercial purposes.

The plaintiffs were the heirs of Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen, who created the girl-size mermaid that has been sitting on a rock at the entrance of the Copenhagen harbour since 1913.

The heirs are rigorous in enforcing the copyright to the sculpture, which runs until 2029, 70 years after Eriksen's 1959 death. Several publications have been charged with copyright infringement over the years after publishing pictures of the artwork.

Eriksen created The Little Mermaid in tribute to Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. One of Europe's most recognisable landmarks, the sculpture draws about 1 million visitors annually and has been a target for vandals who have blown the mermaid figure off its perch and beheaded or painted it.

[merprincess]

This is an interesting case. I didn't realize the statue was under copyright and will fall under public domain in 2029!

[buckmana]

When I searched eBay to see if anyone was selling the Little Mermaid park pin, I found this:
Original Danish Mermaid pin
Uncertain if that's authorised merchandise or not, but there was a second item just like it.

Do they prohibit jewellers from copying the statue too?