Lawyers for the French street artist who posted a photo of his graffiti on a rock in Joshua Tree National Park are threatening to sue the hiking blog that exposed his graffiti. According to the Modern Hiker website, the blog’s authors received a letter from a French legal firm March 3, demanding that they remove their story about Andre Saraiva tagging a rock near the north entrance to the park. The lawyers admitted in their letter that the artist, known as “Mr. Andre,” tagged the rock with an “ephemeral creation,” and “harmless artistic expression,” but also noted that he removed the water-based paint from the rock “a few days later.” The lawyers claim that Modern Hiker’s blog is defamatory toward Mr. Andre, contributes toward harassment of him, and that he is constantly receiving oppressive and unjustified messages that seriously harm his professional and private life. Lawyers for Modern Hiker responded with a letter of their own, in which they remind the French firm that defacing national park property is a crime, and that Modern Hiker obtained all of its information about Mr. Andre and his graffiti from public sources, including his own Instagram account, website, and published articles. Modern Hiker says it has no intention of removing the story from its website.
http://www.modernhiker.com/2015/03/10/mr-andre-issues-legal-threat-to-modern-hiker/
