US college says 3D Michelangelo replica infringes its copyright

A US college has claimed that a replica of a Michelangelo-styled statue it owns, recreated by an amateur photographer using a 3D printer, infringes its copyright.

Jerry Fisher took a photograph of the Moses statue, displayed at the front of academic institution Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and later made a replica of it using a 3D printer.

Augustana’s statue is itself a replica of Michelangelo’s Moses, originally sculpted in 1515. It was donated to the college by local resident and art collector Thomas Fawick in 1971.

Fisher showed evidence of his 3D printings on his Twitter feed, and was issued a notice by Augustana College that it owned the copyright to the Moses statue. The college ordered all replicas to be destroyed and all files to be deleted.

The issue has been continuing since October, but Fisher only recently spoke publicly about it on the sketchfab forum, a website used to share and discuss 3D artwork.

He wrote: “A representative from Augustana contacted me and requested that I take Moses down immediately and to contact anyone else with a downloaded copy of my model and inform them that they should delete it. She informed me that Augustana’s legal department considered Moses to be a copyrighted work.

“For whatever reason, a wide range of places all over the US (and very likely elsewhere) seem to have inconsistent interpretations of what constitutes copyright or intellectual property,” he added.

He continued: “I’m not trying to drag Augustana and Sioux Falls through the mud as they’re both very good entities, but I do take issue with ignorance that has a chilling effect on a concept like this.”

Michael Weinberg, vice president of digital rights group Public Knowledge, said that the college doesn’t have a claim because Michelangelo’s works existed before copyright law was introduced and that the exact replica is precluded from copyright protection.

Augustana College did not respond to a request for comment.