With Green Day's North American tour coming up this summer, the band are surely perfecting their set list and gearing up for an explosive live show. They also must be pursuing other options for a stage backdrop, as they've now been accused of stealing its image from L.A.-based visual artist Dereck Seltzer.
According to a press release, Seltzer's Scream Icon artwork was used by the tween-punk trio for their stage set-up on a 2009 tour, leading the artist to now take legal action.
"I remember seeing my own artwork as the backdrop on stage during a clip of their concert and I was astonished," Seltzer said in the release. "Green Day chose my original artwork as the backdrop for all of their promotional materials and concert performances with absolutely no consideration for Scream Icon's copyright. They added the cross, but my artwork was clearly and deliberately used. Even after I complained, they continued to use it, offering me concert tickets in settlement."
Speaking with TMZ, however, Green Day's lawyer insisted that any copyright infringement was unintentional, saying, "Green Day received Mr. Seltzer's image from a responsible company and was unaware that there could be any copyright or other issues."
While it's unclear how much money the band will have to pay for the infringement charges, they'll definitely have to come up with a new stage banner. Billie Joe Armstrong is probably frantically photoshopping some hearts and houndstooth patterns onto cute cartoon skulls at this very moment.
According to a press release, Seltzer's Scream Icon artwork was used by the tween-punk trio for their stage set-up on a 2009 tour, leading the artist to now take legal action.
"I remember seeing my own artwork as the backdrop on stage during a clip of their concert and I was astonished," Seltzer said in the release. "Green Day chose my original artwork as the backdrop for all of their promotional materials and concert performances with absolutely no consideration for Scream Icon's copyright. They added the cross, but my artwork was clearly and deliberately used. Even after I complained, they continued to use it, offering me concert tickets in settlement."
Speaking with TMZ, however, Green Day's lawyer insisted that any copyright infringement was unintentional, saying, "Green Day received Mr. Seltzer's image from a responsible company and was unaware that there could be any copyright or other issues."
While it's unclear how much money the band will have to pay for the infringement charges, they'll definitely have to come up with a new stage banner. Billie Joe Armstrong is probably frantically photoshopping some hearts and houndstooth patterns onto cute cartoon skulls at this very moment.
