Earlier today, Google posted one of their popular commemorative logos to mark the birthday of artist Joan Miró. However, according to the Mercury News (use BugMeNot to sign in and read the article):

Today, the family of Joan Miro was upset to discover elements of several works by the Spanish surrealist incorporated into Google's logo. Google has since taken the logo off its site.

The Artists Rights Society, a group that represents the Miro family and more than 40,000 visual artists and their estates, had asked Google to remove the image early this morning.

"There are underlying copyrights to the works of Miro, and they are putting it up without having the rights," said Theodore Feder, president of Artists Rights Society.

In a written statement to the Mercury News, Google said that it would honor the request but that it did not believe its logo was a copyright violation.

Google's logo allegedly incorporates images from Miró's The Escape Ladder (1940), Nocturne (1940), and The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers (1941).

This is ridiculous. I'm no expert, but I doubt that clearly imitative work is considered a copyright violation. Ironically, I checked out the Artists Rights Society website, and one of the random artworks that popped up was Botticelli's Venus, by Andy Warhol:

I guess it's okay with the ARS if Warhol does it. I wonder if he asked permission?

Google's created plenty of artist-inspired logos in the past, including plays on da Vinci, van Gogh, Escher, Warhol, and Picasso. As the article mentions, there was also a Dali logo which was removed due to a similar request by the ARS; you can find it here. I think the Miró logo is one of the best they've done, and it's a shame to see it taken down because of banal legal bickering.