Massive, Popular Buffalo Mural to Be Covered After BIG Controversy?
This is pretty juicy.
One of the most popular murals in Buffalo is causing a lot of controversies and covering it up is one of the possible solutions and every one, on both sides, is mad.
Really mad.
Do you know the “Greetings From Buffalo” mural? You have seen it all over social media. The super popular photo opportunity spot is on the side of a building.
Greetings from Buffalo Mural
461 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, New York
The guy who painted the mural is going after a couple of Western New York establishments. It is important to note that there is, apparently, a copyright notice on the mural itself.
Both in the past, Buffalo Bike Tours and the University at Buffalo have been "invoiced" both for $5,000 and $180,000 respectively. Both used pictures of people in front of the 'Greetings From Buffalo' mural on their websites.
The problem that the Buffalo Bike Tours owner notes are that he never received notice that this was an issue:
“Without any announcement, I got a $5,000 bill in the mail,” Moscato told News 4. “We call it the City of Good Neighbors. In this case, I think it’s more the city of litigious neighbors.”
Without any announcement, I got a $5,000 bill in the mail,” owner Marc Moscato said “But, that doesn’t mean you can go around sending hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of invoices without even any kind of images without even any kind of discussion about the uses of images", according to WIVB.
A lawyer for the painter noted in the article that the issue is not people putting up the pictures on social media for personal use, but rather for commercial use. Again, I think it is very important to note that the mural IS copyrighted.
Who owns the building the mural is on?
Signature Development owns the building and noted that there was no cost to hire the artist, and there is no solution to the matter.
painting over it isn’t out of the question.