CUBA: photographer wins damages

A Cuban photographer whose picture of Che Guevara became the world's most famous revolutionary image won substantial damages on September 14, after the portrait was used in a British advertisement for vodka.

Alberto Diaz Gutierrez, 72, went to the High Court to sue the advertising company Lowe Lintas and the Rex picture agency, claiming that they had breached his copyright on the 40-year-old photo in a campaign for Smirnoff last year. The photographer, who lives in Havana and is better known as Alberto Korda, felt that the revolutionary hero was being trivialised.

In an out-of-court settlement, he was confirmed as owning the copyright on the picture and awarded an undisclosed but "substantial" sum.

In true revolutionary style, Korda, Fidel Castro's official photographer for 10 years, said he would donate all the money to Cuban child welfare organisations. He was in London for the launch of an exhibition of Cuban photography at the National Theatre.

Korda called on all artists to do more to defend their rights against commercial exploitation. He said: "As in this case, the use to which it is put should not damage the integrity of the artist or the subject. Alcohol and Che Guevara have nothing in common."

BY TOM LEONARD

[Reprinted from Electronic Telegraph.]

From GLW issue 422