The Almost-Halloween Copycat!

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.

 ALAI is answering four questions about this text. You can find their further reflections here!

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 21^st 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.

Post Mortem Auctoris: Copyright and Estate Planning

UCL/IBIL are offering a two day course aimed at young lawyers  (2 to 5 years qualified) and small to medium sized practices, focusing on sharing practical knowledge that would make estate planning and probate more streamlined and effective for clients and for the beneficiaries of estates - with a specific emphasis on intellectual property 

The practical two day guide for private client practitioners will take place on Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th February 2017 at the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law, Faculty of Laws, University College London. 

Topics which will be covered within this fascinating two day course include Copyright: What Lives On and for How Long?, Estate Planning in a Global marketplace, Managing an Art Estate, Auditing Rights Owners  and Valuation of Copyright Works, and Artistic works: Licensing and Re-sale - and will also extend to revenue administration for artistic works, musical works, sound recordings, audio-visual works, literary works, actors, musicians and the film crafts,  to the role of literary executors and issues including moral rights, endorsements and adaptations, and preserving and protecting the reputation of the deceased.

Panellists and speakers include: Alan Brodie, the eponymous founder of the respected London literary agency, Alan Brodie Representation; Margaret Haig,  Head of Copyright Delivery, the UK Intellectual Property Office; Amanda Harcourt, the independent IP consultant and academic who has worked with many of the worlds leading performers; Barrister and film producer Keith Northrop who has worked extensively with film producers, financiers and distributors, both domestically and internationally: Qualified accountant David Ravden, now a consultant  providing extensive industry knowledge, expertise and commercial strategic advice; Christian Zimmerman, Legal Director and Deputy COO, Design and Artists’ Copyright Society (DACS); Archivist Anthony Penrose, film maker, photographer, author, artist, curator, copyright licensor and CEO; Philip Partington, an specialist IP litigator at Virtuoso Legal,  and music industry legend Pete Jenner who has managed Pink Floyd and the Clash amongst many many other successful artistes.

This course is a practical introduction for the private client lawyer to help them, on behalf of their clients, both in estate planning and in probate. Students will on completion have acquired a valuable understanding of dealings in copyright works and the revenues that copyright can generate. 

Accreditation:  14.5 learning hours 

The application deadline is 9th December 2016, or earlier if fully booked before that date. The course fee is £830, plus VAT (Total, £996). 

http://www.laws.ucl.ac.uk/event/copyright-estate-planning/



Contact: Lisa Penfold: Telephone: 020 3108 8508  Email: lisa.penfold@ucl.ac.uk

Meeting the Legal Needs of the Creative Industries: an intensive course

"Copyright Law: Meeting the Legal Needs of the Creative Industries in the 21st Century" is the title of a forthcoming course at University College London (UCL). Running from Monday 18 to Friday 22 January 2016, its aim is to help young practitioners, advising in accordance with current statutes and existing contracts, to look to the future and explore copyright and related laws in a digital context together with imminent legal developments.

The Faculty has a strong 1709 Blog flavour to it.  Apart from the fact that the course convenor is one of this blog's founder members, Amanda Harcourt, the speakers include both Eleonora Rosati (Southampton University and e-LAWnora) and John Enser (Olswang LLP). A full list of speakers can be accessed along with the course content and brochure by clicking here.

Do please note the following guidance:

As the UCL Law Faculty is currently virtually “homeless” because of building works, the Faculty will be securing an outside venue for this conference. Choice of venue will, naturally, be dependent upon numbers. As a consequence applications for entry from attendees will close on Wednesday 16 December 2015.

All at sea with innovation and incentives

It can be interesting when two different subject areas collide, hence my attendance at a half day conference held in the very pleasant surroundings of the Competition Appeals Tribunal in London yesterday, hosted by University College London, and titled 'Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights: Whose balance of innovation and Incentives? 

The event was billed such that it would "explore the tension between competition law and intellectual property law and will look at the different focuses on static versus dynamic efficiencies. It will explore the differences from the view points of the courts, IP authorities and competition authorities" but I have to say I spent three and a half hours in a fairly baffled state as a succession of speakers made their points, almost all of which soared way way above me.

The event had an illustrious line up and was hosted by Professor Sir Robin Jacob and Dr Ioannis Lianos from UCL, and featured Mr Justice Barling, President of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, Giovanni Pitruzella, chair of the Italian Competition Authority,  Judge Gabriella Muscolo from the specialist competition law and IP division at the Rome District Court, Ameila Fletcher, Chief Economist at the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT), Howard Shelanski, Director of the Bureau of Economics at the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Tony Clayton, Chief Economist at the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO), Henning Leupold from European Commission, Antonio Bavasso from Allen & Overy, Damien Geradin from Covington & Burling LLP and Dr Peter Davies from Compass Lexecon.

Now these are all really expert speakers, but the trouble was that, apart from the talks from Sir Gerald Barling, Ms Fletcher and Mr Shelanski, I didn't really have a clue what was going on. It took until half way through the second panel (already running alarmingly late) that economist Dr Cristina Caffara from CRA gave some basic definitions - particularly what the key term 'dynamic efficiencies' actually meant in this context. I am sure the compwetition lawyers were up to speed but although I did study one module focussed on economics during my undergraduate years (jointly hosted by the London School of Economics, so worth a visit for a King's student for the terrifying Paternoster lifts alone!) and I profess an interest in competition law, I found that the talks from Henning Leupold, Damien Geradin and Dr Peter Davies way way over my head - some of the graphs Dr Davies put forward as simple explanations - of - well something, were all very relevant, but having spoken to my neighbours, they completely outwitted a number of us. 

I had to leave at the scheduled finish time - but there was still a full panel yet to be heard on 'Dynamic efficiencies: Institutional Arrangements' which I missed, but I suspect it would not have added much clarity to my own much confused state. Now I do music, copyright and trademark,s and patents and pharma, and even technology, can be outside of my comfort zone, but at least I have a basic understanding - and I was sort of expecting something which I could at least I could engage with - more akin to MPS v Murphy - or even the CISAC case, but neither were mentioned in the two panels I could attend.

So a plea to conference organisers - when you bring together different subject areas you might need to provide some basic explanations before ploughing ahead into detail - however expertly it is presented. For both subjects! Even Sir Robin, who chaired the second panel "Dynamic Efficiencies: The Courts, IP and Competition Authorities", professed to be confused by some of the content on the first panel more simply titled "The opposition between competition law and IP law". And run to time! That said, If I can find a link to a blog that gives a more pertinent report than this, l then rest assured I will!

Open access for UCL research product

University College London (UCL) has established the UCL Publications Board to implement the university’s open access policy and be responsible for ensuring that, subject to copyright permissions, all UCL research is placed online in the university’s institutional repository, freely accessible to all. According to a UCL press release,

"This move places UCL at the forefront of academic institutions who are pioneering the move to Open Access, as the first European university ranked in the global top ten in the THE–QS world university rankings to do so.

Open access is a new form of dissemination for published books, articles, conference proceedings and digital outputs. Its principles are based on the Berlin Declaration, which urges authors to retain the rights in the materials they produce and to place a copy in an open access medium – in UCL’s case the university’s electronic repository – so that they are available free at point of use to anyone, anywhere in the world, with an Internet connection....”

You can read the 2003 Berlin Declaration on Open Access here. More fun to read, though, is the urban legend attached to the Berlin Declaration of 1963, which you can read about here.