The Tamesis
A U.S. District Court judge in South Carolina awarded local artist Todd Atkinson $158,400 in a copyright infringement lawsuit against artist Chan Shepherd and the owner of the building where Atkinson’s mural was originally painted.
Court documents show that in the summer of 1982, Atkinson painted a mural of a train and a water tank on the side of a building in Clover, South Carolina, with the word “Water Tank” on a red banner. He submitted the copyright certificate on December 11, 2023, and obtained the copyright on March 7, 2024. For years, the building at 111 North Main Street was home to a bar called the Water Tank; it is temporarily closed, according to Google.
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In an Oct. 12, 2023 letter to Justin L. McFalls (and McFalls’ company, Queen City Plumbing), Atkinson’s attorney Alex Long accused McFalls of hiring another artist, Chan Shepherd, to paint a similar version of the water tank mural over the original on the building McFalls recently purchased. “My understanding is that Mr. Atkinson’s original painting bore the author’s name and that Mr. Sheppard substituted his own name for Mr. Atkinson’s,” Long wrote.
Long went on to explain that McFalls violated Atkinson’s right of attribution under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), a federal law passed in 1990. The act applies to public works of art, including murals and statues, and protects their copyright during the lifetime of the artist.
“A lot of artists generally understand copyright and that they own it from the moment they create, but I don’t think they realize they have these additional rights of attribution and rights against destruction,” Long told Postal and express delivery. Misattribution is a key issue.
Court records include social media exchanges between McFalls and a person named Leslie Falls Atkinson, a possible relative of Todd Atkinson, in which McFalls dismissed claims of copyright infringement. “[I]Todd cares so much about the paint on the building that he should buy the building. Besides, if he cares so much about his art, he should offer to fix it instead of letting it become a mess. This is not a reproduction of the original image painted by Todd. We did do research and looked back at old photos from the last 40 years and this photo is different and has [n]o infringes upon his work and he does not own the copyright. Get out of here with this mess. “
The court awarded Atkinson $150,000 in statutory damages, the maximum amount allowed under VARA, and $8,400 in actual damages. according to Postal and express deliveryAtkinson and Reardon McFalls Enterprises, LLC, the developer that purchased the building, reached an out-of-court settlement, and co-defendant Shepherd, who painted and signed his name on the original mural, has not responded to the lawsuit or retained legal counsel.
