Category:
Publishing, Theatre & Radio

16/07/18

New Screen Australia Story Development Fund Guidelines: what you need to know

Screen Australia has released new guidelines for those interested in applying to its Screen Story Development Fund. Following two months of industry consultations, the changes are intended to create a more streamlined application process and support greater diversity of screen stories from a larger pool of content makers. Changes to the funding process Projects for...

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Spotting the problem: New claims against Spotify

Spotify has had two copyright law suits brought against them in the last two weeks. The first claim is by David Lowery, who is claiming copyright infringement. Lowery is seeking $150 million from Spotify for illegally duplicating and distributing his band “Cracker and Camper Van Beetoven” songs. The second claim is by Melissa Ferrick a...

Shake It Off, Shake It Off Tay Tay

In case you hadn’t heard, the claim by R&B singer Jesse Braham that Taylor Swift stole lyrics to her 2014 hit song Shake It Off was dismissed back in November this year. In 2013 Jesse Braham released a song called “Haters Gone Hate” with the chorus containing: “Haters gone hater, playas gone play. Watch out...

Test Kitchen fails the Test

Thou shall not pass the Trade Mark Act if the phrase you intend on monopolising is too descriptive. Bauer Media, publisher of ‘Womans Day’ and ‘Australian Womens’ Weekly was recently reminded of this when they failed to register the phrase ‘TEST KITCHEN’ as a trade mark. A ‘test kitchen’ is a kitchen used to develop...

Jay Z in Copyright Dispute over ‘Big Pimpin’

Last week the details of the trial between multiplatinum hip-hop artist Jay Z and nephew of acclaimed Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi were released. Hamdi’s nephew Osama Fahmy has claimed that Jay Z and producer Tim ‘Timbaland’ Molsey did not properly license his uncle’s composition Khosara Khosara for the 1999 hip-hop anthem Big Pimpin. Hamdi’s estate...

Reproduction of Editorial Content

Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) is a copyright collecting society which collects and distributes copyright licence fees and royalties for text and images. CAL represents a number of publishers including Fairfax Media. It has come to our attention that CAL has been sending letters of demand to some PR agencies and brands alleging copyright infringement in...

Damages awarded for groundless threats of copyright infringement

The Federal Court of Australia has awarded Aboriginal activist artist, Richard Bell, damages of $147,000 against New York filmmaker Tanya Steele. This decision marks the first time that damages have been awarded where a third party had content removed from the internet without justification. Background Richard Bell paid Tanya Steele to assist him in making...