Demmitt, Alberta farmer Peter von Tiesenhausen came up with an innovative way to stop an oil company from running a pipeline across his property: He covered his land with works of art, then copyrighted the art. ConocoPhillips “wanted to drill a sour gas well nearby and possibly run a pipeline over his land,” Swerve reports. “His defence was to assert that his land itself was a work of art and that any destruction would be an attack on his copyright. Eventually, ConocoPhillips backed down.” Other news reports suggest the company may have been nervous about the precedents it could set by fighting and losing the case. (h/t Alastaire Henderson for pointing us to this story)
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