Media & Entertainment

A diverse range of players makes up the media and entertainment industry, from publishers, broadcasting networks, film and recording studios to sports teams, entertainers and government cultural organisations.

In recent years, technological developments have transformed the sector, with factors such as the Internet and media convergence, altering forever the way content is produced and delivered.

In this climate, regulation has not always kept pace, and industry players and participants face a complex array of potential legal issues while they compete for their audience’s attention in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

• Legal update: New .au Domain Name Transfer Policy from 1 June 2008

  In last month’s Legal Update on Upcoming Changes to .au Domain Name Transfer Policy we noted that the Australian domain name administrator (auDA) had approved an implementation plan for a new policy on the transfer on .au domain name licences. auDA has now confirmed that the new policy will take effect on 1 June 2008.

  18 Apr 08 Michael Park

• Legal update: New Guidance Note issued by the Takeovers Panel on equity derivatives

  On 11 April 2008, the Takeovers Panel (Panel) released Guidance Note 20 - Equity Derivatives (Guidance Note) outlining when, and in what circumstances, the use of equity derivatives may constitute unacceptable circumstances and require disclosure to the market.

  17 Apr 08 Robert Sultan, Shane Bilardi , Natalie Trezise

• Legal update: Upcoming changes to .au domain name transfer policy

  The Australian domain name administrator (auDA) recently announced that it has approved an implementation plan for a new policy on the transfer of .au domain names licences. (It is the exclusive licence to use the domain name that is transferred, rather than ownership of the domain name itself.) This announcement follows auDA’s earlier acceptance of the recommendation from the 2007 Names Policy Panel that the current policy be relaxed to allow a registrant to transfer its domain names for any reason.

  27 Mar 08 Michael Park , Ka-Chi Cheung

• Legal update: Market volatility - ASX and ASIC respond

  Sensing a growing controversy, the ASX and ASIC have issued a number of media releases in response to market concerns, reminding market participants of laws designed to protect the integrity of markets. This update discusses the ASX and ASIC statements in light of the current apparent market volatility.

  17 Mar 08 Tim Woodforde

• Legal update: ACCC releases new draft merger guidelines

  The ACCC recently published its 2008 Draft Merger Guidelines for consultation. These guidelines are intended to provide an explanation of the framework the ACCC will apply when considering whether a merger or a proposed merger could substantially lessen competition in a market. Guidelines such as these issued by the ACCC from time to time, provide a useful overview of polices and procedures applied by the ACCC when reviewing proposed mergers.

  4 Mar 08 Jyoti Singh and Chris Mitchell

• Legal update: Introducing...New Moral Rights for Performers

  New moral rights provisions for performers have now come into effect. In accordance with the announcement in the Government Gazette dated 6 June 2007, the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty came into force for Australia late July 2007. The operation of amendments to Part IX of the Copyright Act, enacted as part of the US Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act 2004, was dependent on the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty coming into force. The amendments to Part IX of the Copyright Act that have now come into effect contain provisions relating to moral rights for performers whose performances are captured on sound recordings.

  8 Oct 07 Andrew McRobert , Alison Westcott

• Newsletter: EBIT - May 2007

  Welcome to the May issue of EBIT (Emerging Business, Innovation and Tax). EBIT is an informative newsletter to be shared amongst your clients and colleagues. We provide this information to help you keep abreast of changes to legislation and to stay informed of recent cases and other developments. We hope you enjoyed this issue of EBIT and we look forward to bringing you more issues of EBIT in the future.

  24 May 07 Marcus O'Brien, Michael Tooma, Peter Norman , Angela Zhang, April Thomas

• Legal Update: Victorian major events: new law to prevent aerial ambush advertising

  Advertisers, sponsors and organisers of major sporting events in Victoria now have a new law to prevent rival advertisers who “ambush” events officially sponsored by others with marketing delivered from the sky.

  21 May 07 David Wilson , Jonathan Wilkinson

• Newsletter: EBIT - March 2007

  Welcome to the March issue of EBIT (Emerging Business, Innovation and Tax). EBIT is an informative newsletter to be shared amongst your clients and colleagues. We provide this information to help you keep abreast of changes to legislation and to stay informed of recent cases and other developments. In this issue we discuss unfair dismissal and permitted termination for a genuine operational reason. We look at copyright protection, and we review the revised exposure draft for the taxation of financial arrangements tax timing rules. We hope you enjoyed this issue of EBIT and we look forward to bringing you more issues of EBIT in the future.

  9 Mar 07 David Coombes, Greg Hipwell, Michael Serong, Gregory Wong , Evan Mentiplay, Annabele Nilsoon

• News & Insights: VoIP Industry Forum Update

  An update on the recent VoIP Industry Forum attended by representatives from each of Communications Alliance Limited (the merger of ACIF and SPAN), Australian Communications Media Authority (ACMA), the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

  19 Dec 06 Nick Abrahams, Glenda Stubbs