Mint Charges Musician Pretty Penny For Use Of Coin Image

If he glued a real 1-cent to each album cover instead, it will only cost him $20 per 2000 albums and he would not be in copyright violation by giving away free money. Remember when the banks (RBC and BMO come to mind) gave away little cards with a cent glued on them... they avoided all copyright issues with those.

I wouldn't call it much ado about nothing. Guess things work differently in Canada. In the US most government works do not qualify for copyright and are public domain. Does not compare to "McDonalds" or "Pepsi" etc.

MartiVltori, this is not in the USA and yes a lot of things work differently in other countries. Copyrighted material and trademarks apply outside of commercial organizations in Canada (as they do in the US).

Reverse it. What do you think would happen if the Mint used a performers song in a media ad without paying SOCAN their royalty? You guessed it, aggressive threats of litigation.

This is not the big bad Mint picking on a small guy. This is an entertainer using the media to sell his albums and make money. Besides, does anyone believe that a folk artist in Halifax is going to sell more than 2000 albums? Really?

It makes for a good story and a headline but it really is nothing.

CC-Ottawa, I realize copyrights apply to non-commercial works as well. And of course I realize (as I thought I had made clear) this is outside the US. I was simply pointing out that under section 105 of US copyright law, most government works in the US would not be covered under copyright law. I just found it interesting that govt. works are covered under copyright in Canada, that is all.

This guy is a Canadian artist, using an image of a coin produced by the Canadian mint, which is wholly funded by taxpayer dollars.

This is a perfect example of everything wrong with our country. People being asked to work for the government, not the other way around. What will this $1200 be used for? Programs specific to creating new coin IP's, or will it be deposited into a general treasury for use as the government sees fit? Ridiculous.

I love the "Penny drive" idea. The guy should start up a paypal drive, I would donate!

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, September 13, 2012 â€" The Royal Canadian Mint has long supported the arts in Canada by working with talented artists on a daily basis, therefore we understand the challenges that artists such as Dave Gunning face.

The Mint's recent interaction with Mr. Gunning has brought attention to our current intellectual property policy. We now recognize that our policy as it is today may not consider the individual needs and circumstances of those who request to use our images.

As a result, the Mint has made the following two decisions. First, we will allow Mr. Gunning to use the image of the penny on subsequent reprints of his CD's artwork at no cost. We wish him the very best in his career.

Further, we understand that intellectual property rights in Canada help to promote creativity and innovation by protecting the rights of those involved in the creative process, whether they are artists, designers, writers or musicians. For this reason, the Mint will assess our current intellectual property policy to determine if changes need to be made to ensure that it is being applied fairly on a case-by-case basis while protecting the interests of Canadians.

The mint smartened up and realized this was a net BENEFIT to them as free promotion.

Someone trying to derive direct profit from the IP is one thing (e.g. the knock-off tribute to the 1911 dollar, or the fake Titanic "coins"). But, this is an artistic endeavour where the image use is part of the artistic presentation, and not directly an attempt to derive profit from the IP.

For a change the mint has responded quickly. Imagine that.

The RCM did back off... it wouldn't have ended well for their image (insert chuckle here)...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2...gunning.html

Sad to see some ignorant comments by some Canadians regarding their home music scene...