Is street art, such as murals in public spaces, entitled to copyright protection?
The Delhi High Court has decided to examine the issue.
In February this year, insurance company Acko General Insurance published a hoarding as part of its advertising campaign, using a photograph of a mural titled ‘Humanity’ painted on a public building in Mumbai.
The company also promoted the campaign on its social media handles.
Legal challenge
Soon after, St+Art India Foundation, an organisation that works on art projects in public spaces, along with Mexican painter and muralist Paola Delfin Gaytan, who created ‘Humanity’, issued a legal notice calling upon Acko to remove the hoarding and social media posts containing images of the mural.
Acko responded to the notice, claiming that using the mural in its advertisement did not amount to copyright infringement.
It said the artwork is “fair use” as it is “permanently situated in a public place to which the public has access”.
St+Art — credited with creating the largest mural in the country (on the MTNL building in Mumbai), the tallest mural of Mahatma Gandhi (on a building at the Delhi police headquarters), as well as conceiving projects such as the ‘Lodhi Public Art District’ in the national capital — along with Ms. Gaytan moved the High Court objecting to Acko’s decision.
St+Art and Ms. Gaytan argued that they are the holders of the copyright to the mural and that Acko’s purpose of sharing images of ‘Humanity’ was entirely commercial in nature.
The court, in its November 10 order, noted that the hoarding, which has since been removed, was “clearly an advertisement”.
It has listed the case for hearing in February next year. The court has meanwhile directed Acko to take down all online content pertaining to the mural.
