"Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code." Http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#106. US Copyright Office.

This is where all the grey area of copyright lies. The US Copyright office presents an all inclusive guideline to copyright law. In order to understand appropriation art, it is important to know the law that binds all artists. Additionally, this piece is significant because its interpretation by US courts and judges affects all members of the digital era. Much of the information included in the section is broad. While I will not use the majority of the information provided, it will be an important reference for me as I write my paper. It is the copyright bible so to speak. It has an expansive glossary of everything from the definition of "public" to "visual art." In addition, it contains all of the many restrictions and exceptions to the rules that make up copyright law.

There are important passages that relate to appropriation. Specifically, Section 106A: Rights of Certain Authors to Attribution and Integrity, which among other things, recognizes the importance of the name. In doing so, it assigns values to the names of artists and companies that feel their name is being used and adversely affected without their permission. This brings up many questions like, how much is an artist's name worth? Or, how can we judge to what extent a name was damaged? Also, the Section recognizes the exclusive rights of copyright holders for derivative works. This affects any form of appropriation from sampling to parody to visual art. When determining the morality of appropriation, this latter point will be discussed at great length.