When "Artists" Tag Your Building.

• Position: GRAFFITI

Although graffiti often has a negative connotation--associated with gang-related origins and vandalism --in some cases it is viewed as legitimate art created by street artists with local or even national reputations.

Graffiti vandalism is a criminal act done without the building owner's permission, but urban forms of graffiti art, also known as street art or as seen in murals on the sides of city buildings, are legal. The property owner has granted those artists permission.

While graffiti costs cities millions of dollars to clean up, another type of financial battle can occur regarding the rights of street artists vs. property owners. A landmark example came in a February court decision in New York, resulting in the awarding of $6,-700,000 to graffiti artists who sued building owner Gerald Wolkoff.

"The message to property owners everywhere was, don't paint with a broad brush when it comes to dealing with street artists' says Timothy Kephart, founder of Graffiti Tracker, a web-based system designed to help identify and prosecute graffiti vandals. "Know the details if you have a property already affixed with street art and assume you have control of the situation. There are many implications, and a little-known law could cost you millions."

Kephart refers to the Visual Artist Rights Act (VARA), which graffiti artists used to their advantage against Wolkoff, who had allowed graffiti on his unused buildings in the 1990s but said he one day would tear them down and have the graffiti removed. After he did so in 2013, some people who had drawn graffiti on his property sued, citing VARA, arguing the murals had risen to recognized stature and that the artists had not been given proper notification of removal.

"It opens up a whole litany of quesbons," Kephart notes. "Most importantly, is your property no longer your property to do with what you wish because people put graffiti on it?"

Kephart has four points for property owners to keep in mind regarding ownership...