Thursday, June 29, 2006

Chihuly in the Bronx

Bloomberg has a piece up about the blockbuster Dale Chihuly installation that opened last weekend at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, but also includes a discussion of the lawsuit that I've mentioned here several times (most recently, here). The trial is apparently scheduled for next April. The article states that "Chihuly's lawyers need to prove exact visual imitation" -- but that isn't quite right; the test for copyright infringement is "substantial similarity," not "exact imitation." There is also no discussion at all of the former assistant's co-authorship claim (which was discussed here [scroll down a little] and here [point 2]). The article closes with the following: "At this point, Chihuly wishes the suit would just go away. He's upset someone copied him, but 'it's a drag, it's hard to sue someone.'" Bingo.