Case: Copyrights/Injunctions (2d Cir.)

The Second Circuit affirmed the decision of a federal district court in Vermont denying an artist’s motion for a preliminary injunction and granting summary judgment to Vermont Law School in his action for violation of the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, based on the school’s decision to erect a wall of acoustic panels around the artist’s murals to permanently conceal them from public view. The appeals court said that merely ensconcing a work of art behind a barrier neither modifies nor destroys the work, as contemplated by VARA, and thus doesn’t implicate VARA’s protections.