[anonu]

NYC owns the Statue of Liberty - maybe they should sue the sculptor for copyright claims... a virtuous circle.

[slavik81]

The designer of the Statue of Liberty, Frédéric Bartholdi, died in 1904. The copyright has long since expired. It's public domain.

[sschueller]

Walt Disney also died a long time ago. Yet the mouse is still under copyright. [1]

[1] https://mag.orangenius.com/how-mickey-mouse-keeps-changing-c...

[slavik81]

Frédéric Bartholdi (1834-1904) and Walt Disney (1901-1966) both died a long time ago, but copyright has expired on all works from 1922 and earlier.

[balls187]

It's governed by the US National Park Service, and it's a derivative work.

[omeid2]

Is there any clear line on what is considered a derivative and what is a copy without substantial deviation?

[balls187]

As far as I know, no. It's usually up to a Judge to determine. Per this specific case, the USPS tried to argue something along those lines, but the plaintiff successfully claimed that because the statues face was feminized, it was not a copy, but a derivative.

[omeid2]

That is ingenious. Considering that Mithras is a man, so a feminine version is easy to argue as substantially different.

[xeromal]

In the article, the sculptor claims that he made the statue more feminine.

[wesnerm2]

Government works are not entitled to domestic copyright protection under US law and are in the public domain.