I quite enjoyed Larry Lessig's Ted Talk: Laws that choke creativity. And, as he was speaking, my thoughts kept coming back to a personal debate I've had for several years now. As a former art teacher, I often had assignments where students were required to copy a particular artist's 'style' or sometimes, as in the case of Ted Harrison, I asked them to try to recreate actual pictures to experiment with mixing colour as part of a colour theory unit. The question is, "Was I requiring students to cross a copyright line. I don't believe I was, and thankfully, Lessig seems to agree with me. My students weren't recreating the exact piece of artwork. They were participated in the "creation and the recreation of their culture" as they took what someone else had done, and re-worked it, re-analyzed it, and added and subtracted to it, until the process of their efforts resulted in an entirely new piece of art.
On the stage, behind Lessig, is a photo of Andy Warhol. Maybe it was Warhol's presence that made me think about experiences in my art classes. Warhol did exactly what I asked my students to do. His most famous 'copyright infringement' was probably his Campbell Soup Cans. Here's a link to the paintings I'm referring to. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-campbells-soup-cans-1962
Warhol painted 32 identical paintings of Campbell Soup cans, where the only variation was the name on the can. Interestingly, Campbell's didn't seem to have a problem with Warhol, but were actually flattered by it. Here's a link to a letter, written to Andy Warhol, in 1964, by Campbell's product marketing manager. http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/07/i-hear-you-like-tomato-soup.html
Would Campbell's 2015, product marketing manage have the same reaction as his predecessor of 51 years ago? Was I creating many little plagiarists each time I assigned my Ted Harrison assignment? Thoughts?