Today’s Wall Street Journal article on Greenville, Michigan’s unexpected woes over it’s town statue of “The Little Mermaid” raise some interesting points. Hans Christian Andersen’s story (read the original?it’s a tragic tale of a tail, with no singing crustaceans or happy ending) inspired the original work of art. That sorrowful Mermaid overlooks Copenhagen Harbor. There are unchallenged copies of the Mermaid statue all over the place, as the inside story reveals. But…on behalf of dead (d.1959) artist Edvard Eriksen, and his uncompensated descendants, the Artists Rights Society is trying to exact licensing fees, or get the Michigan Mermaid tossed back into the sea. Anywhere except in public view, where the repute of the story or the original artist could be enhanced or stimulate public imagination?at least until the 70-year copyright expires.
This caught my attention because I happen to be reading Boldrin & Levine’s Against Intellectual Monopoly at the moment, and discussing with a few interested friends. So far, I’m pretty convinced that the standard arguments for protection of intellectual property (innovation and profit) don’t stand up, and might be extended pretty directly to items like statuary. ‘Course if there had been these kinds of protections when Hans penned the original story, there might be no statues to copy, given the probability of never having heard of it.
