[Woodcarver] copy rights question

[Linehan718 at aol.com]

I don't know what would happened to it after you die.  I think your heirs 
would also have to abide by copyright laws and not display it or profit from it.  
This conversation also brings up the question of forgeries.  What if I were 
to paint myself a copy of Andy Wharhols Campbell soup can(not trying to forge 
it, just a very well made copy) and hang it in my bedroom.  Over the years the 
real Campbell soup painting is stolen and never recovered.  I die some years 
later and My Campbell soup can is discovered hanging in my bedroom.  My heirs, 
perhaps believing me to be of dubious character, assume that this is the real 
thing.  They express that opinion to a few of their closest friends. In the 
years that pass, andy wharhols copyright(if there is one), expires. And because 
the painting has been missing for so many years, the copyright is never 
renewed. Then my heirs die and the painting passes to one of their friends who has 
no reason to believe that its not the real original.  They announce to the 
world that they have found the missing original.  It is displayed as such for 
profit until it is forensically tested and determined to be a fake.  Does that 
make me a forger?  And would the people who displayed it for profit be arrested?  
and why? for forgery or for copyright infringement if we assume Campbells 
keeps all their copyrights active?  Just  something to ponder.

Maura carvin' in nyc
http://www.picturetrail.com/whiteknight718
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