In the April 1992 case of Art Rogers v. Jeff Koons, Koons infringed copyright in his work String of Puppies which was a three dimensional color copy of a photographic original of Rogers' that he found on a postcard in a tourist shop. The sources I have researched question the boundaries of art and when it is and is not fair use, and in which ways the guidelines can really have a great effect in shaping this gray area. Koons is sometimes referred to as an appropriation artist: an artist who quotes elements from other works and creates a new version of the original. In the case I choose to focus on he does not alter the change enough, it is arguably an exact copy of the original with minor changes. I use a later case in Koons' career - Blanch v. Koons - as a source to highlight what is fair use, and the development of our understanding of it. In my final paper I would like to use this as a comparison. Identity and Koons' call to parody are also central to the fair use argument and thus I have chosen some sources that discuss these important aspects, as a means to both strengthen and weaken Koons' argument (that his work is based on parody).

This article is an important source bringing together the ideas we have been discussing in class about ownership, parody and the public domain.  It would be a very important source in discussing and interpreting the Koons v. Rogers case in more depth in terms of the public domain, the economic factors, and the First Ammendment Act.  The test for economic harm is whether the copy takes so much from the original that it "serves as a replacement for that original".  A photograph of String of Puppies in a gift store of an art gallery may very well do just that.  In other words people may be more incline to buy a postcard of the more famous artist, Koons' work, than from some less well-known artist, such as Rogers.

This book expresses clearly why Koons defense lost on the account of parody as fair use.  It goes through the four factors of fair use and explains why it breaches the doctrine comparing String of Puppies directly with the original black and white photograph by Rogers, Puppies.  It clarifies first and foremost that the copied work is not a parody of the original, as no one would have any idea of the object, Puppies photograph that Koons is parodying.  Secondly, fair use is more applicable to factual than fictional work, and Roger's work is a fictional piece.  The third factor, the amount and substantiality used are certainly breached, because Koons work is an almost exact copy of the black and white photograph.  Fourthly, whether the copy would affect the market of the original also seemed to fail meeting fair use standards.

Most importantly it clarifies why String of Puppies is not parody, and it points out why Koons v. Rogers is such an important case in the discussion of parody and what is fair use.