Rogers vs. Koons


7. Rogers vs. Koons



Photographer Art Rogers shot a photograph of a couple holding a line of puppies in a row and sold it for use in greeting cards and similar products. Internationally, renowned artist Jeff Koons in the process of creating an exhibit on the banality of everyday items, ran across Rodgers’ photograph and used it to create a set of statues based on the image.
Koons sold several of these structures, making a significant profit. Upon discovering the copy, Rodgers sued Koons for copyright. Koons responded by claiming fair use by parody.

The court found the similarities between the 2 images too close, and that a “typical person” would be able to recognize the copy. Koon’s defense was rejected under the argument that he could have used a more generic source to make the same statement without copying Rogers’ work. Koons was forced to pay a monetary settlement to Rodgers.

This is one of those famous cases that encompassed a larger issue in the art world, the issue of appropriation art. Can you build upon another’s work to create your own original piece? And if you do so, does that constitute derivative work?
It also brought up the issue of photography as art, was photography just a documentation of the world, or is it a creative and artistic product? Neither of these issues was entirely answered by the case, of course, but it has also become a reference used in many cases afterward.

Art Rogers, a professional photographer, took a black and white photograph of a man and a woman with puppies in their arms to be used in greeting cards and other various types of merchandise. The photograph was entitled "Puppies". When Jeff Koons, a famous artist, saw the photograph, he decided to create a sculpture which would be based on the photograph to be readied for an art show. Koons then removed the copyright notice from the picture and gave it to his assistants to begin modeling the picture for a sculpture.

According to court reports, Koons asked his assists to copy as much detail as possible from the photographs. The only changes that were made during the transition were larger noses on the puppies, their fur was made blue, and the man and woman were given flowers in their hair. The sculpture was named "String of Puppies" and became a success for Jeff Koons, who was able to sell three of the statues for $367,000.

You can parallel this with vector-tracing a photograph for your design. Are you creating a derivative work that subtracts value from the original artist?


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