Viewing post categorized under: Copyright
Short Guide to Copyright Law in Australia
Sep / 20

A Short Guide to Copyright Law in Australia

Sharon Givoni Consulting Arts and design, Copyright, Intellectual Property, Protecting ideas, Street art

Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.[1] – MARK TWAIN As the famous quote by nineteenth-century author Mark Twain suggests, and this guide will demonstrate, copyright may be a complex area of the law, but the underlying message is quite simple: don’t copy! The […]

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Photography without Permission
Aug / 30

Photography without Permission: Is it Always Legal to Snap?

Sharon Givoni Consulting Copyright, Intellectual Property, Photography

Many people believe that photographing people without their knowledge or consent is an invasion of privacy and therefore against the law. However, you might be surprised to learn that leaving aside the moral issues that this might raise, in Australia photography without permission it is (on the face of it) perfectly legal. This issue has […]

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Protecting yoga and dance moves – How far can you stretch copyright law?

Sharon Givoni Consulting Copyright, Intellectual Property, Protecting ideas

Imagine this scenario. You come up with an amazing sequence of 26 yoga poses and an accompanying dialogue so that yoga class could be taught throughout the world. People could go to a class in Australia or LA and know it would pretty much be the same. This is exactly what happened to well-known Indian […]

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Legal perils to avoid when using social networks

Sharon Givoni Consulting Consumer Law, Copyright, Intellectual Property, Internet Law

This article considers copyright for businesses in relation to social media. Issues explored include: Who legally owns a business’ social networking account? Recommendations for drafting social media policies and what they should cover Resolving other issues that can arise from social media use such as bad publicity Social media can both help and hurt businesses. […]

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Why being ‘pretty sure’ is not enough to justify threats of copyright infringement

Sharon Givoni Consulting Copyright, Intellectual Property

Takeaway tips Don’t take matters into your own hands if you think someone has copied your work. Don’t make your copyright infringement claims public. If you think your copyright has been infringed, seek legal advice right away. In 2015, a copyright infringement dispute arose 6 years after a British woman, Sarah Scurr, entered a photo […]

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Avoiding the Gaps in the Copyright/Design Overlap

Sharon Givoni Consulting Arts and design, Copyright, Intellectual Property

Takeaway tips The copyright/design overlap aims to deal with and eliminate dual protection under copyright and design law. Don’t assume your designs are protected by copyright. Consider design registration before you publicly disclose your design. Recently, our firm assisted a client who sold unique handmade jewellery through an online store. He shockingly discovered that another […]

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Copyright And Wrong?

Sharon Givoni Consulting Copyright

Copyright or Wrong? You work it out with this short introduction to the rules, by Sharon Givoni*. Content on the internet is not ‘public domain’ and intellectual property rights exist in the technological age. Potentially serious consequences exist when it comes to using and appropriating content found online without permission. In this blog post, Intellectual […]

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Lifting the blinds on copyright law

Sharon Givoni Consulting Copyright

With so much product imagery now easily accessible via the internet, intellectual property lawyer Sharon Givoni analyses the potential copyright pitfalls for window furnishings businesses, and offers practical solutions. Read more… The article has been kindly reproduced with the permission Window Furnishings Australia magazine (WFA)

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The Internet and Social Media

Sharon Givoni Consulting Copyright

We live in an age where most of us spend a significant portion of our everyday lives connected to the internet. Unfortunately, many people seem to treat online content as ‘public domain’, unaffected by the tenets of copyright law.  Not so, as potentially serious consequences exist when it comes to using and appropriating content found […]

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Contract Law for Designers

Sharon Givoni Consulting Copyright

Who would have thought that contract law involves more than just boring jargon and signing on dotted lines?  This article aims to give you clear understanding on your rights, responsibilities and obligations regarding contract law within the creative industries. It also explains in simple terms what a contract is, and the different sorts of contracts […]

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