Art lovers/photographers:

Just read something very disturbing this morning about a FLA photographer.

WEAM is currently suing photographer Thomas Hawk (for USD 2 million!) for taking NON-commercial photos of art work in the museum and posting them on flickr. This is after said museum fraudulently filed a DMCA takedown notice and the photographer filed a counter to this.
In a statement from the photographer online recently:

"Further, many of my photos of their collection were of items entirely out of copyright, items older than 75 years, or items that were clearly transformative. This morning I uploaded an example of perfume bottle that I photographed in their collection. It is absurd that the museum would try to claim copyright on a partial view, out of focus abstract photo of mine based on a perfume bottle (that they obviously do not own copyright on). Many of the items in their collection come from unknown artists as well. To try and assert copyright over pieces created by unknown artists is especially egregious.

"My Flickr account is my personal, non commercial space that I post my photographs. By using the sledgehammer of the DMCA against my photos to object to photos that I took there during my visit (photography is allowed at the museum) the museum is asserting ownership over something (under perjury) that they do not have."

Let this be a warning to people who want to enjoy art and share it with others.

To the right is a photo that I took inside the DeYoung Museum a couple years ago.