The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law CUA Law Scholarship Repository Scholarly Articles and Other Contributions Faculty Scholarship 2015 Who's the Vandal? The Recent Controversy over the Destruction of 5Pointz and How Much Protection Does Moral Rights Law Give to Authorized Aerosol Art? Susanna Frederick Fischer The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.edu/scholar Part of the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, Intellectual Property Law Commons, and the Science and Technology Law Commons Recommended Citation Susanna Frederick Fischer, Who’s the Vandal? The Recent Controversy over the Destruction of 5Pointz – How Much Legal Protection Should the Law Give to Graffiti/Aerosol Street Art?, 14 J. MARSHALL REV. INTELL. PROP. L. 326 (2015). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at CUA Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarly Articles and Other Contributions by an authorized administrator of CUA Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE JOHN MARSHALL REVIEW OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW WHO'S THE VANDAL? THE RECENT CONTROVERSY OVER THE DESTRUCTION OF 5POINTZ AND HOW MUCH PROTECTION DOES MORAL RIGHTS LAW GIVE TO AUTHORIZED AEROSOL ART? SUSANNA FREDERICK FISCHER ABSTRACT This paper considers the extent to which federal moral rights law protects authorized graffiti and aerosol art against destruction, in the context of the controversy over the destruction of 5Pointz. 5Pointz, a sprawling complex of warehouse buildings in Queens, was a Mecca for aerosol art. The buildings’ owners ordered the demolition of 5Pointz after the November 2013 order by New York federal district judge Frederic Block denying the artists a preliminary injunction to stop destruction under the federal moral rights statute, the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA).