By Cameela Ketheeswaran and Gene Goodsell, Special Counsel When life imitates art, legal boundaries become blurred and people start talking lawsuits. Audience members, traumatised by real criminals, file lawsuits against writers of fictional characters acting in imagined worlds. The recent blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises was overshadowed by the massacre at the midnight viewing, in […]
By Rebekah O’Sullivan and Matt Burgess, Director. On 26 July 2008, Sonny Bill Williams, rugby player, walked out on his club, the Canterbury Bulldogs Rugby League Club (Bulldogs), to play rugby union for the French club, Toulon. His contract with the Bulldogs was due to expire at the end of the 2012 season. The Bulldogs […]
By Cameela Ketheeswaran and Gene Goodsell, Special Counsel The copyright issues in Glee are largely connected to the crux of the show’s popularity. The show is pumped with energy due to the mashups and renditions of classic hits like Elvis Presley’s ‘A Little Less Conversation’, Elton John’s ‘I’m Still Standing’ and Lady Gaga’s recent hit […]
By Rebekah O’Sullivan and Matt Burgess, Director. Many injuries occur to participants during the game of sport and this is often seen as an accepted part of participating in sport. However, in certain situations, specific injuries can occur that are not part and parcel of the game or within the rules. These types of injuries […]
By Annie Kinny and Matt Burgess, Director. In the wake of Fairfax media announcing 1900 job cuts, the fabulous Gina Rinehart reporting her desire to be involved in editorial decision making and her push to take three board seats on Fairfax, the greens have pushed for legislation which would force media owners and boards to […]
By Annie Kinny and Matt Burgess, Director. Seven time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong is facing a lifetime ban from cycling and is at risk of losing his Tour de France titles following allegations of doping by The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Despite the Los Angeles attorney’s office ending a two year investigation […]
By Rebekah O’Sullivan and Matt Burgess, Director. Television shows often mirror the society we live in, drawing their stories from real life characters and events but many of the powers that be do not realise they are rolling the dice and exposing themselves to some serious legal risks. This is evident now more then ever […]
By Rebekah O’Sullivan and Matt Burgess, Director.. Many musicians are under the misconception that it is acceptable to sample anything less than 4 bars of a song. That was the thinking of the late Adam Yauch (aka MCA) from the Beastie Boys who allegedly sampled songs, ‘Say What’ and ‘Drop the Bomb’ by Trouble Funk […]
By Rebekah O’Sullivan and Matt Burgess, Director.. Moral legal clauses are everywhere in sporting and talent contracts but the standard contractual language of these clauses might be too broad to stop a celebrity from posting their own opinions on social media sites, such as Twitter or Facebook. That could be the lesson in a recent […]
By Matt Burgess, Director. As of Friday, the full bench of the Federal Court directed Optus to pull the service that rocked the media rights world of sports and threatened to derail any negotiations in relation to new media rights for events around Australia. The “TV Now” service allowed the consumer to direct Optus to […]