Japanese artist sues association over goldfish-filled phone box

A lot of millenials probably won't know what a telephone box is.

Never mind the cruelty involved in jamming living creatures in a glass box placed in sunlight so they can slowly die.

The merchant association denied the allegation but removed the telephone box in April to avoid complications over copyright issues.

Lol....busted!

But, does he really have a patent on it? Patents on artwork are very loosely worded and enforced. Just because he put his name on it does not mean it is patented.

Sounds fishy...

In the end it’s all about money. That city is famous for their goldfish. So having something similar like that is not rare. He should be flatter. Is not like the telephone box is making a profit out of it. As a artist,this is pretty narrowminded of him. He could have ask for so many other solution,like maybe putting his name on it and maybe create more positive publicity. He is just being greedy now.

Its a standard telephone booth. With goldfish in it. Of course it looks similar to his standard telephone booth with goldfish in it.

If he had built the booth from scratch, I'd say he had a claim, but I'm sure the artist did the same thing the city did. Got an old telephone booth and made it into a fish tank. But of course, anything to make a buck these days.

So if he puts goldfish in a fish bowl and calls it art, does that mean if we do the same we have to pay him for it?

Weird.

S

"When contacted by phone for their opinion, the fish couldn't use the device."

Pretty cool though

The town which is famous for goldfish, should counter sue the artist for using "goldfish" as an art subject. What a greedy DB.

"A lot of millenials probably won't know what a telephone box is."

You know half of millennials are in their 30s now.

Do the hustle.......you mean copyright, right. Patents on works of art themselves are a no go from the start.

But, does he really have a patent on it? Patents on artwork are very loosely worded and enforced. Just because he put his name on it does not mean it is patented.

Patents on artwork don’t exist, they are protected by copyright which is quite different.

I think the claim is a bit dubious if all we are talking about is putting water and goldfish into a phone booth. It is just an idea rather than a work of art and as such isn’t copyrightable unless they were slavishly trying to mimic the detail of the original phone booth filled with fish.

Nevermind. Sue BOTH of them for animal cruelty

There have been similar displays worldwide. I don't know if this guy was the first to do it, but I wonder if he's going after all of them.

Looks cool, but I don't think it is that original.

Let's put him inside (with scuba gear of course) and call it art. 

We could make millions! 

I'm sure the fish would pay to see that!

S

That's what you call "innovation" there and that's one thing many J companies is lacking nowadays. No wonder big names such as Toshiba, Sony are losing money because most of their products lack innovation.

Folk were doing this back in the 80's in Britain when much of the country changed from the old red telephone boxes. And I'm sure the idea wasn't even original back then. Somebody from there should sue this Yamamoto chap.

“In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.” 17 U.S.C. §102(b).