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Original Statue of Liberty vs Robert Davidson's Las Vegas replica. Which one is more feminine?
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The artist, Robert Davidson, made a sculpture of the Statue of Liberty for a New York-themed casino in Las Vegas (can we all just read Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation right now?), and it was this statue, not the original, that the Post Office used to make its stamps.
There's a difference, as you can see above, where one is more feminized. Davidson did that on purpose, and that difference makes it original enough to be protected under fair use law.
Interesting situation here, in that a copy of a copy got in trouble for copying the copy instead of the original, and now owes the copy-creator. But the details get even better, because the USPS licensed the photograph of the Statue from Getty (well I guess they can't just take their own photograph, right?), but they didn't realize that the photo they licensed was of the wrong Statue. Hence Davidson, sculptor of the statue in the photo that was licensed, sues for unauthorized use.
And because the Postal Service sells lots of stamps, there's lots of money involved. There was a good case similar to this involving Artist Shepard Fairey's HOPE Poster, President Barack Obama, Photographer Mannie Garcia, and the Associate Press.
Notes:
Information on Fair Use, Copyright, Intellectual Property, etc.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Post Office owes $3.5M for using wrong Statue of Liberty
Jul 2018, Ars Technica
On Property Rights
Feb 2018, Network Address
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