This chapter highlights the (often) anti-establishment feature of street and graffiti art, explaining that many artists within these communities believe there is no contradiction between this element of their creative practice and showing interest in copyright regimes as well as taking commissions, doing merchandising and in general accepting the institutional art market. It also focuses on the selling out dilemma and the so-called paradox of consumerist anti-consumerism. The chapter then draws some similarities between the graffiti subculture and the advertising world.

The chapter delves into the creative processes within the graffiti subculture. It makes the point that graffiti writers engage in highly creative acts by reinterpreting, deconstructing and reshaping the letters of the alphabet – an artistic activity which copyright laws cannot ignore anymore. The chapter also provides readers with an explanation of the differences between graffiti styles, especially in New York, the birthplace of modern graffiti. It highlights how these creative subcultures are driven by a strong competitive pressure which pushes writers to strive to distinguish their artistic output, be original and rise within their communities.

The final chapter delves into another characterising feature of street and graffiti art – their sharing and appropriation ethos. It makes the point that tolerating appropriation and sharing practices, especially when done for non-commercial purposes, does not contradict copyright principles. It then sheds some light on the distinction between biting (copying, in graffiti jargon) and inspiration, and highlights the differences between copyright and social norms within the street and graffiti subcultures.

The book looks at how copyright laws are perceived within the graffiti and street art subcultures, and how artists and writers view certain creative aspects of their own practice. By drawing on the author’s ethnographic research and fieldwork, the book gives voice to the main actors of these communities and highlights their feelings and opinions towards issues which until recently they have often felt far from their everyday life and practice. This book, in other words, brings the ‘voice from the street’ into the debate over the legal (and non-legal) protection of street art and graffiti. The monograph also touches on related and complementary issues, such as the ‘gallerisation’ and economic exploitation of these forms of art (e.g. via merchandising) and the curious similarities between the graffiti and advertising worlds. The book includes inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspectives, showing how different disciplines can interact. The ethnographic research carried out by the author gives the monograph a strong empirical touch, thus providing insight and perspectives from the street art and graffiti subcultures.

This chapter introduces readers to the world and history of graffiti and street art, highlighting the differences between these forms of art. It also reviews the existing literature on this subject, and explains how the book builds upon it. This introductory chapter also presents the methodology used by the author, which focuses on a strong ethnographic element.

The chapter highlights street and graffiti artists’ opinions about protecting their art in case of misattribution, unwelcome associations as well as destruction, removal and relocation of their pieces. It highlights that several of these artists (but not all) value the bond that attaches them to their creation and show interest in the moral rights of attribution and integrity as tools to protect and preserve their art. Particular attention is devoted to how street and graffiti artists would react if their pieces are destroyed or removed from their original location in the street.

This chapter reveals that many street and graffiti artists have experienced being imitated, especially by corporate actors, and it also highlighting the anger felt by the artists at such appropriations. It explains that many of them look at copyright as a possible means to oppose these appropriating behaviours and show a certain degree of awareness of the legal tools offered by copyright laws to protect their artworks. While the chapter acknowledges that the prospect of relying on copyright does not constitute the trigger for the creative spark within these subculture and that many practitioners of these art forms tolerate non-commercial uses of their pieces, it reiterates their opposition to their unauthorised economic exploitation and willingness to oppose it through a copyright-based claim, even where their art is produced illegally.

This chapter focuses on the legal protection of sound recordings. Recorded music is the kind of music people usually listen to in various ways, for example, while enjoying a vinyl spinning at 33 or 45 rpm or songs broadcast by radio or selected via dedicated smartphone applications. Recorded music must be distinguished from music played live. Generally (and technically) speaking, sound recordings are registrations or fixations of sounds embodied in a tangible medium. The latter can be a vinyl record, a cassette tape or an MP3.1 The sounds embodied in these forms of consumption media are traditionally captured and created in recording studios but the introduction of sampling and the digital audio workstation (DAW) has encouraged a music production process where digitised sounds, often originating from diverse geographical regions and time frames, can be harnessed and arranged in a process of music programming, and this affords the production of music in domestic settings without the costly infrastructure of a recording studio or the need to acquire specialised skill sets.