Burning Man Bus Not A Protected Work Of Visual Art Under VARA

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the judgment of a Nevada district court when it determined that the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) of the US Copyright Act did not apply to a used school bus that had been transformed into a mobile replica of a 16th-century Spanish sailing ship. Cheffins v. Stewart, Case No. 12-16913 (9th Cir., June 8, 2016) (O’Scannlain, J) (concurrence, McKeown, J).

La Contessa was a mobile replica of a Spanish galleon that the plaintiffs created for use and display at the annual Burning Man Festival, an art and counterculture event that takes place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Plaintiffs built La Contessa by transforming a used school bus into what looked like a large post-apocalyptic version of a 16th-century Spanish ship.