I tend to be a little cranky when it comes to the topic of copyright infringement. When your livelihood depends on your written word or creative designs and you spend hours or days refining them only to have them knocked off, it's extremely upsetting.
Recently, the Green Day band was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit for allegedly stealing an image called the 'Scream' icon by artist Dereck Seltzer. It was used as a backdrop during their American Idiot concert tour. When Seltzer noticed that the image was being used for promotional materials and concert performances he decided to take legal action against the band.
Some reports I've seen quote the damages at a very reasonable $30,000, which is the value the artist is placing on the use by the band. Amazing (I've seen both images - they are almost identical), Green Day is fighting the charges. Anyone remember Napster? The music industry wasn't too happy when their creative product was being stolen.
For more information about copyright infringement and how to protect your arts and crafts business from knock offs, check out my articles on the subject.
Concerning the lawsuit against the band Greenday using an image called “The Scream”; I seem to remember from my college art history classes an oil painting titled “The Scream” by (I believe) Edward Munch. So maybe the artist doing the suing may be using another artist’s painting title and the idea for the painting also. Perhaps he is the one stealing an image.
No – it’s different than that iconic piece of artwork and the Scream mask from the movie. Here’s a link to the image:
http://hauntedeuth.com/artwork/1162824_Scream_Icon.html