Category:
Music

13/10/16

Blog: Marvin Gaye & Co. to ‘Get it on’ in Court against Ed Sheeran

After their huge US$7.4 million win against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for copyright infringement over the hit single “Blurred Lines,” Marvin Gaye’s extended musical family are in court again. This time they have British musician Ed Sheeran in their sights, alleging Sheeran copied core elements of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit ‘Let’s Get It...

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Donald Trumps Queen

At the Republican National Convention earlier this week, Donald Trump entered the stage to Queen’s 1977 hit “We are the Champions”. Shortly after the event Queen responded on Twitter saying the use was unauthorised. It was later confirmed that the Republican National Convention did in fact pay to licence the song from Broadcast Music...

Licensing of samples v artist freedom

1970s German electronic music band, Kraftwerk, were considered the pioneers of electronic music with their revolutionary distinctive minimalistic sound combining repetitive rhythms and catchy melodies with simplified lyrics often sung through a vocoder. Kraftwerk have been compared to The Beatles in terms of their influence on pop music. The sounds and beats they invented essentially...

Axl Rose’s Big Issue: Singer files DMCA complaint with Google over unflattering pictures

Axl Rose, Guns N’ Roses frontman, has sought to employ the take down provisions of the US’s DMCA – or Digital Millennium Copyright Act – to demand Google remove certain concert images of him from their search engine. While it seems at least part of Rose’s motivation is removing unflattering pictures from circulation, he is...

Tour promotors take note – the importance of work visas for touring artists

Popular US singer, Kina Grannis (‘Grannis’) and her touring band and road crew were recently detained in Jakarta for 100 days for visa fraud. Unbeknownst to Grannis and her crew, their tour promoter had reportedly not organised the correct visas for them to work in the country. Indonesian immigration officials allegedly approached the band onstage after...

Trade Mark Vice – Vice Media takes on unsigned indie band ViceVersa

We bring you word of a new trade mark stoush – this time between Vice Media, a company valued at US$2.5 billion, and an unsigned indie band based in LA – ViceVersa. In November last year, the band’s application to have its name trade marked was accepted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. This...

Image rights – the debate continues post mortem

In both Australia and the UK, there is no such thing as an “image right” or “right of privacy” which allows a celebrity to control the use of his or her name or image. This was confirmed by the UK High Court in the Rihanna and Top Shop case[i]. Instead both UK and Australian courts rely...

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