Soon you'll be able to visit Creative Artists Law at the home of the movies in Australia! We are excited to announce that from after the Commonwealth Games, Creative Artists Law will be moving to our new offices at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast, Australia. Village Roadshow Studios is the home of blockbuster productions such as Thor Ragnarok, Pirates of the Carribean, Aquaman and many others. The studios are located close to the Gold Coast and Brisbane so to our c

Here at Creative Artists Law, we are thrilled to announce that we are now a major sponsor of the Byron Bay International Film Festival. The Byron Bay Film Festival is Australia's largest regional film festival and is now entering its 11th year. Each year the festival showcases an amazing array of local and international films and this year promises to be the best yet. This year's festival will be held between October 6th-15th and film entries are now open. You can find out al

Just how similar, is too similar? Many readers, especially those with children, may have seen Zootopia (trailer above), a recent animated tale following the adventures of a rabbit police officer in a modern-day animal metropolis. Zootopia was a critical and commercial hit for Disney, grossing over USD one billion at the box office world-wide. It is a film that has been touted as the second highest grossing original intellectual property of all time behind James Cameron’s Avat

What makes a song unique? Recently we’ve come across a number of articles about various artists being sued for copyright infringement of popular songs, two of the most notable examples in recent weeks have been U2 and Shakira. Irish rock group U2 are in the news for allegedly plagiarising elements of their 1991 hit ‘The Fly’ from a track called ‘Nae Slappin’ by British Guitarist Paul Rose. They are being sued to the tune of AUD 6.5 million.  In ‘The Fly’ Bono sings: “Every ar

They are increasingly popular, but just what does the law say about drones? There is no doubt drone usage amongst Australians has risen rapidly in recent years as the cost of the technology has come down. Current estimates put the number of recreational drone users in Australia at more than 50,000, with a further 1000 commercial operators flying in the country. Globally, the figure is over one million drones buzzing around in the air, and with this comes the potential to crea

An interesting aspect of the latest Star Wars film - ‘Rogue One - A Star Wars Story’ has been the use of digital actors and the potential future ramifications of such technology, not least legally with respect to the rights of an actor to control the commercial use of his or her name, image or likeness. If you have not seen this film, we should warn that this article will contain spoilers. Those who have seen Rogue One may have noticed that its production company, Lucasfilm L

In today’s fast paced commercial environment, non-disclosure agreements (“NDA’s"), are something which many businesses sign without giving the matter a second thought. There is perhaps a misconception amongst some that they are relatively harmless legal documents, either a mere formality or not needed altogether. The recent case in a North Texas District Court, however, between on one side: Facebook, Oculus,  its co-founders Palmer Luckey and John Carmack and its former CEO B

A recent ruling in a major trademark case decided by China's highest court promises to have significant ramifications for the intellectual property rights of sports persons and their brands in the Chinese market. The legal saga started five years ago in 2011, when the famous basketball legend Michael Jordan took action against a Chinese company, Qiaodan Sports, which had been using his name, as it is spelt in Mandarin characters, for a number of years, along with a similar lo

Recently we came across an interesting article on the latest battles in the music industry regarding the distribution of music. It's fair to say the musical industry has seen massive changes in the last 20 years in terms of distribution and income streams, from physical media, to iTunes and MP3s, and now streaming services, one of the largest of which is YouTube. After years of arguments, YouTube has, in a blog post this week, finally revealed how much they're paying musician

An interesting recent court concerns pop group Duran Duran who attempted in London’s High Court to regain copyright over early hits of the band that were subject to a 35 year old English publishing agreement that gave ownership rights to Sony/ATV. The case concerned around three dozen early hits of the band, such as ‘Reflex’ (click to view above). Under English law, copyright lasts for 70 years from creation of the work, however, under US copyright law, artists can reclaim co

The world of internet fan films is one that could be said to be perennially skating on thin legal ice. Most creators of fan films rely on the good graces of the intellectual property owners of the original work allowing such fan films to exist.  Such productions have largely tended to be non-professional endeavours generally shot on shoe-string budgets. An interesting recent case before the courts in the United States is that ofAxanar, a fan film to be set in the Star Trek un

An interesting article in the Telegraph about the cancellation of the T in the Park festival, Scotland's biggest and most famous music festival. The festival had encountered a number of problems when it was forced to move sites, which so often creates issues related to health and safety and transport. A nesting pair of protected Ospreys appear to have been the final straw, with the licensing conditions just becoming too onerous and expensive. This is a timely reminder to alwa

Here's an interesting piece from the Australian about the challenges facing writer's as a result of proposed changes to copyright law proposed by the Productivity Commission. Of particular note was the proposed recommendation to limit copyright from the current 70 years after the creator's death down to 15 or 25 years from creation, this can result in a potentially major shortening of copyright protection offered to an author.  Luckily for authors, this proposal has already b