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A Dutch court artist has received damages after an MP for the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) used one of her drawings without permission and altered it using AI.
Petra Urban, a court artist for almost two decades, discovered that a drawing she made last year of two Syrian brothers jailed for the murder of their sister had been changed to make the subjects look more intimidating and posted on social media.
As reported by The Guardian, Petra said there were three main things that caused her frustration.
"One is that my work was used without asking my permission. Secondly, this was done for a political party, when I want to work as neutrally and independently as possible. And thirdly – and this makes it really strange – the distortion was done with AI," said the artist.
Under Dutch law, creators are protected by copyright and also have moral rights to object to any distortion of their work that could harm their reputation.
Petra said that after her union issued a legal demand for licensing rights and damages, the PVV MP Maikel Boon called her to apologise and has now paid the damages, which have not been made public.
She also shared that she has no affiliation with the far-right party led by Geert Wilders.
"Honestly, the PVV is a long way from my political views, but even if it had been closer to my own politics, I would not have wanted this," she said. "It compromises my neutrality."
The MP has publicly accepted responsibility and told De Telegraaf he had thought an altered image would no longer be subject to copyright but that it had been a "very stupid act".
