There are plenty of “historical artifacts” that are believed by some to be forgeries. It seems reasonable to say that if you forge a supposed ancient document or artifact and then try to sell it as something you found, it’s possible that you could be committing Fraud. Is it illegal, in and of itself, to forge an artifact and then leave it somewhere to be discovered, and then sit back and giggle as archaeologists argue over its authenticity, assuming that you stay out of the matter and don’t try to profit? I’m primarily asking about laws where the fact that the item is forged is an element of the offense - don’t tell me “yeah, you’re guilty of littering”.
Moving thread to General Questions from IMHO.
If you forge something and try to sell it as real, it isn’t just possible, you **are **committing fraud. The actual laws you’d be breaking would vary pretty widely depending on what it is you forged. A comic book could get you sued, a $100 bill will get you federal prison time! Depending on its value the comic book might get you jail time too.
If you plant a forgery but then have nothing to do with it, and the so-called experts are fooled by it, well, it would be tough charging you with any crime for that, but it could get complicated (this by the way, is exactly what happened with Piltdown Man).
Forging most anything, say Action Comics #1 (or whatever the Superman one is) or a dinosaur bone or a Model T radiator cap, and then just displaying it prominently on the wall of your den and bragging about it to your guests isn’t a crime in and of itself. Unless you forge currency. Both making & possessing counterfeit money is a crime in and of itself, even without trying to pass it off as real.
With the exception of counterfeiting, intent is everything.
Of course, there may be issues related to content. I suppose if you forged King John’s signature (or seal?) on yor own Magna Carta, Or a letter signed by George Washington, a case could be made for forgery. Again, is it intent that matters? (As in what are you planning to do with this? or You signed “Geroge Washington” when you knew you were not?)
Copyright violation, even not for profit, is (I understand) a criminal offense in the USA now, thanks to the lobbying and political donations of the record and movie industries. Making your own fake Action Comic may be illegal, but making your own first edition of Shakespeare may not?
Is it fraud if, even if you do not profit, you knowingly leave something where someone else will find it and possibly use it in a transaction which misrepresents the item’s actual nature? If I create a fake Superman #1 Comic and leave it in the attic where I could reasonably forsee cousin Jack would find it and try to sell it as real - am I committing fraud?
This is pretty much what I’m wondering about. We could also consider a case where the “forged” artifact doesn’t have any signatures, seals, or trademarks. For example, making a sword that looks like it could be from the Middle Ages and leaving it in the crawl space of an old church in London, but the sword doesn’t contain any identifying marks that directly state that it was owned by such and such a historical person, issued by such and such King’s army, or made on such and such a date. So, you leave it in the church and giggle as one archaeologist says that the manner in which the blade tapers to a point indicates that it’s probably from King John (of England)'s royal bodyguards, while another archaeologist says that the alloy used in the hilt indicates that it’s probably a Tax and Duty official’s sword from the Holy Roman Empire between 1300 and 1400.
There have always been criminal penalties for some copyright violations. Under the Copyright Act of 1976, there are criminal penalties for infringement committed “willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain.” The No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 made all willful electronic infringements potentially subject to criminal penalties, regardless of whether there was a profit motive.
You say “thanks to the lobbying and political donations of the record and movie industries” as if it’s we should assume that this should be looked on with suspicion. Of course the industries that rely on copyright law for their revenue are going to advocate for laws that protect it.
Just a side note: [J. S. Boggs](J - Wikipedia. S. Boggs) doesn’t try to pass off his art work as real, but has flirted with the law on occasion. It depends on your definition of “counterfeit.”
I can’t see where you would be in violation of any laws if you don’t directly profit from it.
I can imagine situations where it could be considered fraud even if you don’t directly sell it.
Suppose you’re an archaeologist who gets paid to look for artifacts and you forge one?
What happens if you’re not on anyone’s payroll but you forge something and then sell articles or books or documentaries based on it?
Pierre Plantard planted fake historical documents in the 1960s that later became the basis for various (purported) documentaries. He wasn’t the author of those documentaries though, and I don’t think he profited directly from their sales - his intention was self-promotion.
I guess the government could come after you if you are working for a university that is paid with government grants; and you as part of your paid work (professor of archaeology?) publish documents or otherwise are paid (salary) for work that misrepresent aritfacts you know are fake.
Prosecutors can be remarkably creative in their definition of fraud. DO it 3 times and they could get you for RICO too?
I suppose the other problem is proving intent. Did you plant the items intending to make money off them? Did you intentionally waste taxpayer money? If they tear down a heritage house looking for a (phony) important ancient grave due to a planted fake, could you be charged with public mischief?
A working link: J. S. G. Boggs - Wikipedia
These are all essentially the same thing, you’re deliberately profiting via fraud, either directly or indirectly.
I first saw that guy years ago in a NOVA about counterfeiting. He is what he is, an artists who specializes in drawing currency. He never tries to pass them off as real money, but, he does try to pass them off as having real value by selling them (‘coincidentally’ for the fake bill’s face value). And because they’re so good they do have real value. Obviously he’s not what you’d call a real counterfeiter, but he is still flirting with the idea (which again makes his art even more valuable). He’s not high on the Secret Service’s list, but they still have to occasionally ‘discourage’ his actions.
This is one of the cases where I said it can get complicated. Leaving it your own attic implies a reasonable expectation of privacy. Even if you know your cousin will look there it would be hard to prove this. You’d probably be off the hook for any actions he might take with it.
Instead, say you make a really good fake of Spiderman issue #3, you deliberately plant it in a comic book store, and its surprising presence there eventually causes a riot at the store including injuries. I’d say you’d be guilty of a crime, but more akin to criminal mischief or even reckless endangerment. IANAL but if such a charge exists you might also be guilty of fraud with intent to cause harm (once again, *intent *being key).
Nope, not legal - at least if you sell it… There was a case of fake Chinese antiques in Seattle that resulted in charges back in 2004.
I’ve also seen stories indicating that fake pre-Columbian art is far too common, but no cites at hand.
And of course we should look at people who advocate laws that help them make more money as suspicious. Do you really want a legal system where whoever has the most money to gain is the one who makes the rules?
Any law that benefits one aspect of society over a much larger other group is a bad law and anyone who advocates such is a bad person. This is why we are currently having to fight SOPA and PIPA, despite the fact that the highest estimates of monetary loss by the big companies is still less than 0.1% of their revenue.
Lobbying sucks because one does not have to get any community support to do it. It wouldn’t be so bad if Congress would then check that themselves, but, instead, they rely on us coming to them. My estimates are that 80% of people are against SOPA, and yet it still is in danger of passing because the RIAA and MPAA want it to.
So, yeah, it’s a bad thing.
I have been told by the Parks Service that putting a fake artifact, or even a real one which doesn’t belong there, in an existing archeological dig, on Federal land, is a Federal crime. However, I have been searching for a while and cannot confirm this.
This painter Hans van Meergeren (he has his own fan club, with links) is considered the greatest forger of the 20th century (barring anyone who are better and we are not wise to).
He earned huge amounts of money, some of his paintings (ostensibly by Renaissance Northern maters) hung in museums around the world until the 1960s.
One of his Vermeers (I think) wound up in Goering’s hands, which was a bad thing.
He lived through the war, but ironically his forgeries were so good that he was charged with treason, not forgery: for selling Dutch national treasure to the Nazis.(!!) He confessed to a few of his forgeries, but not all of them.
The account of his 12-year research into materials and chemistry for a masterpiece is fascinating.