Can Photographers Be Plagiarists?
 In this slide-show essay for Slate, journalist David Segal explores the sometimes blurry borders between artistic inspiration and theft. Creative license easily lends itself to heated debates, but when it comes to a camera and, say, a lusciously circular bridge in Shanghai—can one professional photographer stake his claim over the span's image? Segal doesn't assert a definitive answer, but surveys precedents set by such copyright-pushing artists as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, and 2 Live Crew. He also pulls out examples of photographic "appropriation" by Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Sherrie Levine, and Christian Patterson, among others. In the case of the much-documented Chinese bridge, he serves up four different photos by individuals appreciative of its curvy wonder and leaves you to decide for yourself how much they vary from each other.
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