# A legal battle over Vivian Maier's work



## SoulfulRecover (Sep 6, 2014)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/06/a...icmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000&_r=1

Kind of interesting and I'm not surprised a lawsuit popped up after all the success of her work recently


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## D-B-J (Sep 6, 2014)

Her work may be pulled? BOOOOO.


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## timor (Sep 6, 2014)

Lawyers smell money. Thanks God we do not need pictures by Vivian Maier for our mental survival. . After this long legal battle, when her pictures reemerge again there might be much less hype about them and much more disgust about the process of releasing them.


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## limr (Sep 6, 2014)

What a cluster****  All this to get money for someone who never even met her? How fair is that? Especially since it's never been clear whether or not Maier herself would have wanted her work displayed at all. She shot thousands of rolls of film and didn't even develop hundreds of those rolls. Of the ones she developed, she'd only print a tiny fraction. So there are images that we've all seen that she might never have seen herself.

If anyone is at all interested in her, I'd suggest the documentary that Maloof did. He gets a little preachy at the end about getting her work known and recognized, but for the most part, it's focused on her and her work, and it's pretty fascinating.


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## Bobby Ironsights (Sep 6, 2014)

This makes one helluva story; and it makes me a little sad. Such a poignant story. I have great love for street photographers, and I intend to watch that documentary forthwith.

What's the name of the docu?


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## KmH (Sep 6, 2014)

Copyright law changed during Vivian Maiers lifetime.

That change was the enactment of the Copyright Act of 1976, which replaced the Copyright Act of 1909.

Sorting out which Maier images fall under which version of copyright law will be a nightmare.
Prior to 1976 there were state copyright laws to for unpublished works.

But, there is no doubt big bucks are involved, and anytime the ownership of big bucks is questionable courtrooms become the means to sort the wheat from the chaff.


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## limr (Sep 6, 2014)

Bobby Ironsights said:


> This makes one helluva story; and it makes me a little sad. Such a poignant story. I have great love for street photographers, and I intend to watch that documentary forthwith.
> 
> What's the name of the docu?



Home - Finding Vivian Maier

It's in limited release so I'm not sure how one goes about seeing it. On the website they show times and places and it looks like there aren't any more in Canada, but I saw it at a theater that is not on that list, so there might be other options. I also don't know if they are going to release it in another form. You can try contacting them maybe (also a contact page on the website).


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## Overread (Sep 6, 2014)

Yeah this sounds like someone smelt money and is chasing it as hard as they can.


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## vintagesnaps (Sep 6, 2014)

I thought I'd read that the documentary would eventually be out on DVD but I'm not sure where I might have seen that. And now, who knows. 

John Maloof is the one that found them and has worked to preserve them, so who else would have preserved them? Even if he's making money it seems he's made an investment of his own time and money and effort to make all this happen. 

I see in the article he did genealogical research and found a relative/cousin who _was_ compensated. So why does this other lawyer/photographer have any reason to get involved? And supposedly found another cousin who didn't know he was related??? I just hope it gets worked out and if this relative is legit that there's some compensation and that would be the end of it.

Of course there's no way really to know what Ms. Maier may have wanted done with her negatives since apparently she didn't make any arrangements for what would happen to them after her death. I have to say though if she was taking pictures that much, even if she was selective of what she printed and may not have wanted any recognition while she was alive, there was something that drove her to keep taking pictures and documenting life. So maybe it was meant to be that the collection be found by someone who took it upon himself to preserve and publish it. I hope she would have been pleased to know that what she did was worthwhile and enjoyed and appreciated by many of us.


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## AlanKlein (Sep 6, 2014)

There's too much money involved for a deal not to be made between the heirs and current owners of the negatives.


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