Who owns the copyright after graffiti has been painted over ?

[Blank_Canvas]

I was being generous and assumed that random chance accounted for the degree of error, contradiction and general WTFness of your comments.

I'm pleased to know my generosity was misplaced.

You're in a truculent mood today. Let go. That is all.

 

[DemiLion]

Copyright good luck with that one ! - it doesn't exist with graffiti. Nobody uses the (C) symbol for a start. Nobody is going to admit 'that's my graffiti' on a privately owned wall (not the Waterloo tunnel) and run the risk of criminal damage !

Even Banksy doesn't respect copyright using Micky Mouse and Ronald McDonald in his work !!

Ermmm. Wibble?

 

[Musicman]

Off course some people sign their work, some of it is legible and some of it isn't. Why state the obvious? Graffiti is a form of art. It is also criminal damage when applied to someone's property without consent. If people want to bang on about copywrite or intellectual property rights when claiming your graffiti then good luck to you. You deserve to be prosecuted !

Whether or not the artist chooses to enforce their copyright for external reasons, doesn't mean that the copyright doesn't exist in law, which is the OP's question.

You might want to familiarise yourself with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

s4 Artistic Works

(1) In this Part “artistic work” means—

(a)a graphic work, photograph, sculpture or collage, irrespective of artistic quality

...

(2) In this Part—

• “building” includes any fixed structure, and a part of a building or fixed structure;
  
  
• “graphic work” includes—
  

(a)any painting, drawing, diagram, map, chart or plan

s62 provides an exemption for taking photographs of works on permanent display in a public place, but only those of buildings and sculptures.

Now, it is true that graffiti artists may have great difficulty in exercising their rights (if the original works were not painted with permission of the property owners) but they do exercise them successfully. e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28754656