HALF ART: Image maker and subject in close #FeesMustFall dance
TO whom does an image belong? Common sense and intellectual property law agree: to the image maker. He or she may sell the image or have a preexisting contract with an employer or patron.Iconic works of art tend to be appropriated by the cultures or nations from which they emerged — a collective sense of ownership. The most famous are "global treasures", reproduced in the public domain even if they technically belong to a private collector or museum.But what about the people depicted in an image? Can the subject of a picture lay claim to it? What if that subject refuses permission? It has significant consequences for artists, journalists and, indeed, anyone with a camera on their phone.Earlier this week I was walking back to my office on Wits University’s main campus after yet another aborted class. Picking my way through the debris of upturned rubbish bins, rocks and chunks of concrete — signs of battle between protesting students and the police — I approached the entrance to the G...
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