Let’s
start with an event!
“Crisis in Copyright
Policy: How the digital monopolies have cornered culture and what it means for
all of us”
With Jonathan Taplin, University of Southern California and author of Move Fast and Break Things, and Chaired by Professor Sir Robin Jacob
It’s on Monday, 27 November 2017, from
18:00 to 19:30, and it’s followed by a reception!
The place to be: UCL Cruciform Building,
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
You can book your
place here!
A Learned
society is answering questions!
ALAI (Association Littéraire et Artistique
Internationale, International Literary and Artistic Association) learned
recently that EU Member States have been asking questions to the Legal Service
of the Council regarding Article 13 and Recital 38 of the Commission Proposal for
a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market.
The
family of Albert Namatjira recover his copyrights after 30 years of battle!
It was an injustice,
and it has been resolved more than 30 years after the beginning of the battle by the
family of Albert Namatjira! In Australia, it was the longest copyright battle
of the country!
The outstanding artist's has been
denied any rights or revenue from the work of the Aboriginal painter for more
than 30 years. The painter is recognised as Australia’s greatest indigenous
painter, and the first to work in the western tradition.
 |
| One of Albert Namatjira’s extraordinary paintings |
Small facts: one of its paintings was gifted to the Queen for her 21st birthday in 1947, and he was the first indigenous artist to receive international acclaim.
Before he died, he
sold part of the copyright to his friend John Brackenreg of Legend Press in
1957. Two years later, he died and gave the rest of his copyright to his wife
Robina and his family. Thing is: its full copyright was sold to Legend Press
for $8500 by the administration of his will was handed to the Northern
Territory public trustee! And if it wasn’t enough, Legend Press put restrictions
on the use of Namatjira’s paintings and images and the royalties to his family
dried up!
Eight years ago, the
family began the battle to recover Namatjira copyrights, and they even met the
Queen!
Thanks to the good
will of Dick Smith, a multimillionaire, who shared its connection with the
family, which was able to rich one of the current owners of Legend Press.
Surprise: after a 15 minutes’ chat, Mr Philip Brackenreg gave back the right to
the Namatjira Legacy Trust for $1!
A horrific tale - but happy ending to this story!
Missing
data: Spinrilla is trying to have copyright case dismissed!
Do you know Spinrilla? It’s an app where you
can access thousands of free hip-hop mixtapes in your pocket. Doesn’t it sound
cool?
Problem: the
application allows people to upload and listen to unofficial mixtapes, which
leads tooooo… yes, you got it, copyright infringement!
Thing is: they are
infringing copyrights according to the US record industry! A lawsuit is filed
against the hip-hop mixtape application by the US record industry, and things
are going sour: Spinrilla has requested that the copyright infringement be
dismissed on the basis that the major record company failed to hand over
crucial data relating to the allegedly infringing tracks at the heart of the
case. For Spinrilla, by not providing this data, the label hindered its ability
to mount a defence, leaving the company “severely prejudiced”.
According to
Spinrilla: “It is without exaggeration to say that by
hiding the RIAA spreadsheets and that underlying data, defendants have been
severely prejudiced. The complaint should be dismissed with prejudice and, if it is, plaintiffs can only blame themselves”
It seems a somewhat
ambitious bid to have the record industry’s copyright case thrown out of court.
But we’ll nevertheless await with interest to see how the judge overseeing the
case responds.
This CopyKat from Lolita S.
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