In recent years, the number of conflicts related to the misuse of street art and graffiti has been on the rise around the world. Some cases involve claims of misappropriation related to corporate advertising campaigns, while others entail the destruction or 'surgical' removal of street art from the walls on which they were created. In this work, Enrico Bonadio brings together a group of experts to provide the first comprehensive analysis of issues related to copyright in street art and graffiti. Chapter authors shed light not only on the legal tools available in thirteen key jurisdictions for street and graffiti artists to object to unauthorized exploitations and unwanted treatments of their works, but also offer policy and sociological insights designed to spur further debate on whether and to what extent the street art and graffiti subcultures can benefit from copyright and moral rights protection.

In the last few decades, art has moved from the museums and art galleries to the streets. Visionary artists, gifted with breath- taking expressiveness, have utilized featureless and abandoned spacesof everyday life and converted them into a new artistic palette for expressing their ideas. In this context, this new art breaks the mold and speaks directly to a now-global audience without intermediaries or filters. Social themes, political criticism, and poetry materialize on a bridge, on the facade of an old building or between the railings of a courtyard. Chris Versteeg provides a detailed historical introductionto street art and graffiti, from its origins to the main trends through which it is expressed: from graffiti to sticker art, from tagging to character, and including stencil art. Thanks to the interviews by Alessandra Mattanza, the reader is provided access to twenty of the most representative exponents ofthe latest street-art scene. These artists tell their story and introduce the readers to the rationale and the ideas from which they draw inspiration.