Graffiti enquanto arte contratada: proteção da moralidade artística

Abstract

After decades of marginalization, graffiti has started to appear in public contracts related to the composition of the landscape in important metropolitan areas. Despite the prestige achieved worldwide, there are still disagreements between graffiti artists and public managing officials, especially in the context of urban maintenance policies in which these paintings are targeted for deletion without prior dialogue with its authors — This action may be considered a violation of the author’s moral right to ensure the integrity of the work. Motivated by the controversial removal of the mural on Avenida 23 de Maio (São Paulo city, 2017), this paper aims to verify within the Copyright Law, the hypothetical existence of a gap in the law that undermines the exercise of this right, using the hypothetic deductive method. Some pertinent cases are commented, to refine the contours of this prerogative and of the protection offered by Law 9.610/98, also aiming to assess whether it covers the preservation of graffiti in urban support. The conclusion is that the law does not present obstacles to the right to ensure the integrity of the graffiti artwork, and that artists do face vulnerabilities, but it is unrelated to a gap in copyright law.