Wrong Lady Liberty on stamp to cost US Postal Service $3.5M

[left-of-center2012]

LAS VEGAS — A stamp that mistakenly featured the image of a Statue of Liberty replica in Las Vegas instead of the original New York Statue will cost the U.S. Postal Service $3.5 million in a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Las Vegas sculptor Robert Davidson, who created the replica Lady Liberty in the facade at the New-York-New York casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip, sued the Postal Service five years ago over its 2011 “forever” stamp design .

The stamp featured the face of his Lady Liberty, which his attorneys argued in court filings was unmistakably different from the original and was more “fresh-faced,” “sultry” and even “sexier.”

Federal Judge Eric Bruggink sided with Davidson last week and agreed his work was an original design with a more modern, feminine and contemporary face. He ordered the Postal Service to pay $3.5 million to the artist — a slice of the $70 million the service made in profit from the stamp.

Full story https://www.abqjournal.com/1192744/wrong-lady-liberty-on-stamp-to-cost-us-postal-service-3-5m.html

[MineralMan]

1. Unintended Consequences Strike Again.

More institutional dumbassery!

[SonofDonald]

2. Instant collectors item I'd think.

[left-of-center2012]

3. "Instant collectors item"

$70 million dollars worth were sold, at about 49¢ each;
so about 140 million stamps.

[SonofDonald]

4. I get that, but how many are left?

Only the future knows for sure.

[zipplewrath]

6. which is why they're worthless

There will be the constant likelihood that somewhere, someone has a "roll" of these left over. With that many having been produced, there will always be the possibility that too many will ultimately hit the market and water down the value of any known existing ones. That's pretty much how collectors estimate value. It's based upon how many were originally in existence, unless there is some known event that destroyed a large chunk of them.

[SonofDonald]

8. Whatever you like.

[Demit]

7. Court documents say 4.9 billion Lady Liberty stamps were sold, for $2.1 billion in sales/

"Ultimately, 4.9 billion of the Lady Liberty stamps were sold, amounting to just over $2.1 billion in sales for that stamp alone."

Lots of fascinating info here—
https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2013cv0942-136-0

[Demit]

5. A victory for artists.

The USPS official who chose this likeness had two other likenesses of the real Statue of Liberty side by side with it, and chose this one. He had to have noticed the difference in the facial features! He had to have known. Maybe he thought that buying the Getty photo was all he had to do to secure the rights to the image, but damn, that's why there are experts in copyright law and fair usage. I guess they'll be more careful from now on with their due diligence.

[Aristus]

9. "Fresh-face"? "Sultry?" "Sexy". I'm sorry, but that Lady Liberty looks bored!

The real Lady Liberty looks strong, determined, and commanding.

[TheBlackAdder]

10. Lady Liberty was originally planned for several Mid-East countries, her looks--Average Muslim woman.

.

So, what the artist did was to white wash her looks to make her more Western.

.