I am a huge Roy Lichtenstein fan, but the link provided above is a rather unfortunate story about the estate of Mr. Lichtenstein trying to prevent the use of a work of art as the cover of an album by the band Elsinore.
The image, shown above, is not by Mr. Lichtenstein. It is, however, based off of the same source image that Mr. Lichtenstein appropriated for his famous work Kiss V.
So, apparently, the estate of Mr. Lichtenstein feels that only Mr. Lichtenstein is allowed to remix the public domain works that Mr. Lichtenstein decided to remix. Or possibly, they think the people involved in making Elsinore’s latest album are too stupid to know their rights.
Sometimes, people don’t understand why the current state of copyright law in this country makes me so mad. Here’s a pretty good working example of how the current legal landscape stifles the creative process in completely needless ways.
Update: After what most people would argue was a collective hue and cry from the inter-tubes (including one very polite and firm email written to the Lichtenstein Foundation by this author), the estate has changed its mind. Good deal. Still, it should never have happened in the first place.