Knowledge

12/07/16

Image rights can get messi!

Barcelona football star, Lionel Messi, was recently sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined the equivalent of $2.95 million after being found guilty of tax fraud. Messi allegedly used different offshore companies to evade taxes on income made from Messi’s “image rights”. In Spain there is a constitutional right to one’s own image. This...

23/06/16

Thanks for nothing, Citibank: New case raises questions over the grant of trade marks for everyday words

Citigroup has commenced action in the Federal Court in New York against US telecommunications giant AT&T, claiming the telecom’s new “AT&T thanks” customer rewards program infringes trademark rights connected with its own well-established “ThankYou” rewards points program. Back in 2004, Citigroup began using the term “thankyou” to promote a customer loyalty and rewards program, and...

08/06/16

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...

07/06/16

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...

03/06/16

Spoiler alert

In 2003, Steve Carbon (‘Steve’), a blogger from Dallas, started a newsletter that leaked reports from the show the Bachelor and the Bachelorette that had not yet been aired, even revealing the finale of one of the show’s seasons. After some triumphant spills reaching an audience of millions, RealitySteve.com was born and dedicated to spoiling...

27/05/16

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...

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