Unauthorized use of street art and graffiti in augmented reality – Virtual Infringement of Copyright?
Abstract
Graffiti writers and street artist are faced with novel ways their art can be used, but also exploited, due to the rapid evolution of technology. The AI revolution the world has witnessed over the last years, holds implications for the use and accessibility of other types of technology such as Augmented Reality (AR). AR is a technology using digital overlays or filters on the real world to give users an enhanced presentation of reality, through digital devices such as a smartphone. The creation of the digital overlay or filter, used to demand a high degree of tech knowledge. Now, however, that AI generators producing images are accessible to everyone, it is easier than ever before to create digital overlays to use in AR. Graffiti and street art works are vulnerable to exploitation in the digital world through the easy accessibility of the works in the street, the (often) anonymous artists and the appeal this type of art has to the public. In this article we explore one side of the legal implications of unauthorized use of street art and graffiti in AR, namely that of potential Copyright infringement. This article builds on an article we have published in the University of St. Thomas Law Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3, 2022, and presented at the Urban Creativity Conference in 2022. Our new article digs deeper into this intersection between law and technology from the street art perspective, and in light of the developments within the technology since the last publication we have a number of new questions to discuss.