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Artists flout copyright law to attack Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst's work has been being 'ripped off' by a group of artists who want to make a point about the multimillionaire's stringent use of copyright law.

Damien Hirst: Artists flout copyright laws to attack Damien Hirst
Cartrain have created a series of works containing images of Hirst's £50 million diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God Credit: Photo: GETTY

The artists include Jamie Reed, who designed the Sex Pistols' sleeve for the single God Save the Queen, former KLF band member Jimmy Cauty and Tracey Emin's former boyfriend Billy Childish.

They have created a series of works containing images of Hirst's £50 million diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God.

Their action follows Hirst's decision to threaten to sue a 16-year-old designer who used an image of the skull in a collage to sell on the internet.

Cartrain, as he calls himself, said he was "shocked" to receive a letter from the Design and Artists Copyright Society demanding that he removed the works from sale and "deliver up" the original designs.

He said at the time: 'I met Christian Zimmerman [from DACS] who told me Hirst had personally ordered action on this matter. I was wondering why he was coming after me."

He handed over the collages and agreed to pay Hirst the £200 profits he had made.

Now the artists have rallied to Cartrain's defence.

In a tongue in cheek pledge on the website www.redragtoabull.com they have promised to raise £20 million from the sale of their Hirst-inspired art to make an exact replica of his diamond skull.

The works include a version of Reid's famous Sex Pistols poster, with the diamond skull replacing the head of the Queen in the centre of the Union Jack, for sale for £113.13.

Another features an adaptation of Cartrain's poster, of a picture of a man superimposed with Hirst's diamond skull as a head, reading a book.

In Cartrain's original the man was reading a book called 'How to be a Detective' but Cauty replaced that with one titled 'Copyright and Intellectual Property Law'.

Cauty, who famously burnt one million pounds of earnings from the KLF in the name of art, wrote to The Independent: "Unlike Cartrain and his gallery we are not intimidated by lawyers and if an injunction is issued, we will simply ignore it on the grounds of free speech."

Copyright, he suggested, needed to be "abolished and replaced with something more flexible".

Hirst's company Science Ltd has so far declined to comment.