It’s one of the best-known songs in the world and it’s the copyright preserve of music publishers Warner Chappell. But possibly not for much longer.
Men at Work were found liable for copying two bars from Kookaburra Sits on the Old Gum Tree – a ‘fair use’ exception would have prevented this.
Jolene Bertoldi
Nicolas Suzor, Queensland University of Technology dan Rachel Choi, Queensland University of Technology
A new book and documentary tell us more about the story behind Men at Work’s song Down Under – and the court case it eventually led to. They also prompt questions about current Australian copyright law.
Taylor Swift hopes to outfox the counterfeiters.
Reuters
The singer-songwriter has signed deals with two Chinese retailers to sell authentic merchandise in the country in hopes of stemming the tide of knockoffs.
BitTorrent site Pirate Bay is one of those often targeted in anti-piracy legislation.
Bhupinder Nayyar/Flickr
The government’s new anti-piracy bill is not the best solution to online piracy. What really works is easily accessible and affordable legal means to acquire the latest content.
How easy is it to find those responsible for movie piracy using BitTorrent technology, as in the Dallas Buyers Club case. Not as easy as you might think.
The Dallas Buyers Club ruling is a further attack on online privacy.
Voltage Pictures
A jury in the US has awarded damages of nearly US$7.4 million to Marvin Gaye’s family in a lawsuit against singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams. Aren’t we missing the point of copyright?
ISPs and telcos are finalising details of a plan that would issue ‘education’, ‘warning’ and ‘final’ notices to suspected copyright infringers.
Image sourced from Shutterstock.com
Much of the creative work we value – whether it’s films, music, novels, or TV shows – requires a significant input of time and resources. The established method for raising the resources to fund such work…
If you’re in favor of copyright extensions – and aren’t a corporation holding the rights or a descendent of the original author – you probably need some sense knocked into you.
Flickr
In 1998, if Congress hadn’t extended copyrights by 20 years, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind would all be in the public domain…