USPS Ordered to Pay $3.5 Million After Putting Artist's Weird 'Sexier' Lady Liberty on Stamps

[steven36]

The US Postal Service will have to pay a sculptor who recreated the Statue of Liberty for a New York-themed Las Vegas hotel over $3.5 million after it used his version instead of its much more famous predecessor on Lady Liberty-themed stamps.

 

Artist Robert S. Davidson’s half-size replica of the Statue of Liberty at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

 

The US Postal Service will have to pay a sculptor who recreated the Statue of Liberty for a New York-themed Las Vegas hotel over $3.5 million after it used his version instead of its much more famous predecessor on Lady Liberty-themed stamps.

 

 

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#OTD in 2010 - A bizzare mistake but one we didn't really mind here. The @USPS issued a Statue of Liberty Forever stamp, but the Lady Liberty on it was the slightly different replica from outside @NYNYVegas on the Las #Vegas Strip! Error was realized 3 months later! pic.twitter.com/eYRiaj6aDb

— Clark County Nevada (@ClarkCountyNV) December 1, 2017

 

The USPS put a Getty Images photo of artist Robert S. Davidson’s Las Vegas version of the sculpture on roughly 3.5 billion stamps before the incongruity was noticed in 2011. In his original civil complaint, art market platform Artsy wrote last year, Davidson wrote the USPS never asked permission and that his version is materially different than the one from 1875 and thus protected under copyright—specifically that it is “more ‘fresh-faced,’ ‘sultry’ and even ‘sexier’ than the original located in New York.” (Davidson very weirdly added that he took the inspiration for this sex bomb Lady Liberty from, umm, “certain facial features of his close female relatives.”)

 

Per Fast Company, a federal judge recently ruled that Davidson is entitled to a sum of just short of $3,550,000 in royalties plus interest over the copyright infringement:

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“We are satisfied that plaintiff succeeded in making the statue his own creation, particularly the face,” the judge declared last week. “A comparison of the two faces unmistakably shows that they are different.” The ruling goes on, “Having determined that the face of plaintiff’s sculpture is distinct, original, and protected, we find that defendant’s use was infringing.”

According to a 2013 article in the Washington Post, the USPS admitted that it had used the wrong image in an attempt to freshen up its Statue of Liberty lines, but that the “sultry” version sold so well the USPS “would have selected this photograph anyway.” The Post noted that USPS continued to sell the stamp even after being informed of the error, which legal experts warned would probably hurt its case and apparently did. In total, according to court documents, the USPS printed over 10 billion of the stamps and sold 4.9 billion of them.

 

Regardless, this is yet more proof that what happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas, particularly when you print it on billions of stamps.

Source

 

[Jogs]

Yeah, some thing happens in Vegas and you see some thing somewhere else nine months later

[luisam]

USPS might have found their own artwork  to freshen up its Statue of Liberty line. They could have made a series with the faces of main US lady artists (or politicans?) who had  made somehow a contribution to American culture and progress. the list could have been selected by a jury and popular vote, and of course, counting with the consent of the subjet of the "honor" because, for personal reasons, maybe some of those ladies might not have been too happy with the idea. Now, how would you feel with a Liberty stamp with the face of Madonna, Shirley Temple, Hillary Clinton, Sara Palin, Nancy Pelosi or ...Nikky Haley?

[Archanus]

On 7/3/2018 at 12:47 AM, Jogs said:

Yeah, some thing happens in Vegas and you see some thing somewhere else nine months later

 

jajajaa Exactly, and then it gets pay XD !!