Icelandic artists Lárus H. List recently lost a case against American department store chain Wal-Mart, who took him to arbitration court in Switzerland for using the domain Wa1-mArt.com. The ruling stated List was causing damage to Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart was consequently given the legal rights to List’s domain.
According to Fréttabladid, the domain was part of an artwork List displayed in the Kling og Bang Gallery in Reykjavík two years ago—a painting based on Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa entitled “Wa1m-ART.”
List said the idea behind his work was to criticize American greed and cultural hegemony and that Wal-Mart’s lawsuit has proven his point. The arbitration court however ruled that List’s domain was too similar to Wal-Mart’s name.
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