The ruling of the Nuremberg Council is a well documented one found in the archives of the Council of Nuremberg, dating in January 3, 1512. “The foreigner, who sold prints before the town hall, some with Albrecht Dürer’s monogram [hanndzaichen] that were fraudulently copied from him, shall be bound by oath to remove all the said monograms and sell none of them here; and if he refuses, all his said prints shall be confiscated as counterfeit [ain falsch] and taken into the hands of the council.”51 In this specific case, the Council was very clear that the alleged fraud materialized not due to the open sale of the copies as such, but due to the fact that the actual copies were branded with Dürer’s monogram. It was namely the false marking of the copies that turned them into illegal counterfeits.52 Thus, while Dürer could not be protected by those copying his prints, the actual artistic representation of his prints was left unprotected to counterfeiters, he could stop the use of his monogram in the sold copies. Since the author’s relation to his customers at this time was a rather distant one, the viewers of Dürer’s art prints, had most probably never met him, neither did they have the possibility to control the actual commercial origin of the prints, providing for such a form of protection was of critical importance. Dürer was trained as an artist at a time where Gutenberg’s technological revolution already dominated the book printing world while its influence in art became gradually apparent. He used this new technology, printing, to create art and turned the artistic restrictions of this medium to possibilities. Through this new medium he was able to demonstrate his artistic skills. At the same time, this exact technological innovation allowed him to adopt a novel business model, making art accessible and available to a broader public. He even adjusted his production process, by standardizing the size of the woodcuts to facilitate mass production. 100 disruptive technology and materiality as vessels of authorship 51 Karol, Peter, Albrecht Dürer’s Enforcement Actions: A Trademark Origin Story, 25Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, 2023, pp. 445–462. 52 Ibid, pp. 432–440. Concluding remarks The Court ruling
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