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About the Visual Arts Infringement Database

The Columbia Visual Arts Infringement Database seeks to educate lawyers, law students, academics and members of the artistic community about issues relating to copyright and the visual arts.  The Database presents selected visual art infringement cases, with particular attention to images of the works in dispute.  A court’s verbal descriptions of the source work and its alleged infringement cannot adequately convey the works’ appearance, and therefore inevitably diminish the reader's understanding of disputes over issues such as independent creation, substantial similarity, idea/expression, and fair use.  Seeing is believing, or as may often be the case, disbelieving and debunking the parties’ claims or the court’s assessment.  The website shows the images in pairs, organized in a variety of ways:  chronologically, by names of parties, by types of works, or by the legal issue in question.  Hence, for example, the visitor to the site may call up cases concerning photographs, or cases raising the defense of independent generation of a similar-appearing work.

Each case page contains a short précis of the case, a case summary, and the full text of the decision.  Where possible, we have included within each case page extra materials, such as additional images, and news articles about the controversy and the parties, as well as links to the artists’ websites, where available.  In addition to the decided cases, the website includes a section devoted to settled cases.

The Database was initially inspired in part by an earlier website created at Columbia Law School and now hosted by George Washington University, the Music Copyright Infringement Resource.  That site’s insight – that encountering the complaining and defending works in their original media uniquely informs one’s analysis and appreciation of the caselaw – also prompts this website devoted to arts infringement cases.

For information on how to use the VAID site click here. If you have questions, please email kernochancenter@law.columbia.edu.

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About the Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts

The Kernochan Center for Law, Media, and the Arts at Columbia Law School is one of the leading centers for intellectual property research in the United States.  Its faculty and staff dedicate their research and writing to copyright, trademarks, and related areas as they concern traditional and emerging media, entertainment and the arts.  The Center offers students an in-depth program of instruction, lectures, internships and externships while providing symposia, lectures, research studies and publications to the broader legal community.  Founded as the Center for Law and the Arts, it was renamed in 1999 to honor Professor John M. Kernochan, its founder and a pioneer in teaching copyright in American law schools.  

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About Arnold D. Burk

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This site was made possible by a gift from Arnold D. Burk, BA ’53, LAW ’55.  Born to Jewish immigrants in New York, Arnold grew up during the Great Depression in abject poverty.  After the death of his father, he became the household breadwinner at age 11.  His employer:  the Yiddish Theater, where he sang in a show starring Molly Picon for several years.

Recognizing his intelligence and talent, a grammar school teacher, Libby Packer, arranged for IQ testing and applied on his behalf to New York City’s High School for Music and Art, later popularized in the feature film Fame (1980).  Along with shepherding him through this process, Ms. Packer took him to hear the New York Philharmonic; he became a lifelong lover of classical music.  During his high-school years, he became close to a classmate whose father was a 5th Ave. ophthalmologist.  The Conovitz family invited him to Shabbat dinners, taught him formal manners, and bought him a suit for his college interviews.  

After graduating from Columbia Law School in 1955, Arnold became the first in-house lawyer at United Artists, rapidly rising to become Assistant to UA’s Production Chief, Robert Blumofe. He later served as Vice President in Charge of Production at Paramount Pictures and the President of Stax and Volt Records in the 1960s, and eventually settled at the Los Angeles entertainment law firm Gang Tyre Ramer & Brown, Inc., for the balance of his career, representing mostly producers and directors alongside his lifelong friend Bruce Ramer. He retired in 1992.

A lover of the performing arts all his life, and a devoted student of the legal structures that help create and support them, Arnold Burk’s estate provided for the creation and maintenance of this website, as well as endowing scholarships at Columbia College and Columbia Law School for students who, like him, overcame poverty and other adversity by quick wits and devotion to education and hard work. He was married 60 years to Judith (Sandler) Burk and, after Judy passed away, to Kathy (Soule) Burk. Arnold had two children and five grandchildren.

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