This is not what I’m talking about for this week’s ‘Saturday’ post.
But since I’m interested in both intellectual property rights and the fiction side of writing, I’m taking a few minutes from my Wednesday afternoon to share this excerpt and a link to Blake Hester’s article:
“Spider-Man 2 Is Missing This Major New York City Landmark“
Blake Hester, Game Informer (October 20, 2023)“The recently released Spider-Man 2 is also missing the Chrysler Building. In its place is the same building that replaced it in Spider-Man Miles Morales, though this time with a new coat of paint….
“…with the building coming under new ownership in 2019, it looks like the Chrysler Building may be making fewer appearances. We talked to a copyright lawyer about the ways buildings are protected by copyright and to developer Insomniac Games about why it had to change its version of the New York City skyline.
“The Chrysler Building opened on May 27, 1930, and stood as the tallest building in the world until the Empire State Building was completed in May 1931, one mile away. … The Art Deco building, which rises to 1,046 feet with 77 floors, is particularly famous for its eight eagles, which protrude from the exterior of the 61st floor….”
Whoops. Left out an important bit:
“…As of 1990, architectural works such as the Chrysler Building can be protected under copyright, no different than other forms of art. According to the United States Copyright Office, an architectural work is defined as ‘the design of a building as embodied in any tangible medium of expression, including a building, architectural plans, or drawings. […] Examples of works that satisfy this requirement include houses, office buildings, churches, and museums. By contrast, the Office will refuse to register bridges, cloverleaves, dams, walkways, tents, recreational vehicles, or boats (although a house boat that is permanently affixed to a dock may be registerable as an architectural work).’
“While copyright owners won’t go after a picture you took of a building, they do protect themselves from more obvious infringements, such as another company copying a building’s design for its own purpose, and building owners have, on occasion, gone after companies for copyright-protected architecture on merchandising….”
(“Spider-Man 2 Is Missing This Major New York City Landmark“
Blake Hester, Game Informer (October 20, 2023)) [emphasis mine]
As I see it, folks in New York City are still allowed to look at the Chrysler Building and other non-bland objects. They’re even allowed (apparently) to take snapshots. That, my opinion, is good news.
I can, with a little imagination, see the viewpoint of a corporation bigwig who wants another corporation bigwig’s minions to give the corporation of the first part a piece of the corporation of the second part’s action — whoosh. That’s a syntactic mouthful.
Anyway, I can see why SIGNA Group and RFR Holding LLC — I gather they’re the current owners of the Chrysler Building — don’t want their big shiny building associated with Spider-Man. Not until they get an offer they like, at any rate.
On the other hand, I don’t know where the dividing line is between some New York City tourist taking pictures and the likes of Sony Interactive Entertainment and Marvel Comics. Or maybe it’s a dividing zone, where one writer or artist gets sued and another doesn’t.
This doesn’t affect me, happily. At least not yet. But I like to keep mildly up to date with rules involving intellectual property rights.
Now, I’d better get back to work on that ‘Saturday’ thing.
