Isgrò and Waters, problem erased

A happy end has been reached between Roger Waters and Emilio Isgrò, or as we would say in Italian, the dispute ended a tarallucci e vino (literally to cookies and wine, in a friendly way so to say). Last summer the IPKat reported on the feud over the cover of Roger Waters' latest album “Is This The Life We Really Want?”. It seems that the artists have now mutually recognised each other's talent and Isgrò acknowledged that there was no ill-will behind the design of the album cover. I shall give a brief recap of the dispute:

Visual comparison between the album cover (left) and Cancellatura (right)

When the new Roger Waters album came out last summer the cover graphic was not greeted with particular joy by Italian artist Emilio Isgrò.  He thought that the style used was a copy of the erasure technique, very similar to his own works, for example Cancellatura. Long story short, Isgrò sued Waters and the Milan Commercial Court issued an injunction banning the sale of everything associated with the album except for, essentially, the CD, based on the fact that the expression of the idea is what counts and in this case the idea behind Water's album cover was conveyed in the same way as Isgrò's works of art.

The Court's reasoning aside, the issue has been put to an end by an agreement reached by the two quarrelers, as the record company lawyers stated that “[Mr. Isgrò] unequivocally forfeited to his copyright infringement action against Mr. Waters, of whom he is a great fan and admirer. Isgrò recognises with pleasure that Mr. Water's good faith is not under discussion and that, as also stated by Mr. Waters, this graphic material was developed by himself and his creative associates, independently from Mr. Isgrò's work.”[my own translation]. The waters have calmed down.