A music academy may offer you a chance to be the first person to buy your favourite music and become a member of the family, but it may also have the power to make you look like a pop superstar.
It is a common belief that artists and labels often sell the rights to their songs to the schools and other entities that use the music for commercial purposes.
However, in reality, these contracts do not have the legal force to be enforced against the artists, schools or other entities, according to lawyers who have been working to bring the issue to light.
Key points:It is not legal for artists and schools to sell rights to music to third partiesSource: Al Jazeera’s Daniel De LucaThe law does not protect the rights of students to use music in their own creative works, nor does it protect third parties from making use of that music.
The rules of copyright law cover music only, and this applies in particular to works which are “original works” – that is, those which are original works that are protected by copyright law.
However the rights are not protected against third parties and this means that it is illegal for a third party to take the rights and use them for commercial gain.
“It is the responsibility of the music academy for ensuring that the music is used in a way that is in keeping with its educational mission and to ensure that the rights that it holds are not abused by third parties,” said Peter Mancuso, an Australian-based musician and musician lawyer who is representing one of the parties to the case, the National Education and Training Council of Australia (NEATCA).
“They are supposed to be protecting the rights.
There’s no legal justification for them to do that.”
The NECA is an independent body of teachers and staff who have taken over responsibility for the educational needs of Australian schoolchildren.
It has a statutory duty to ensure all schools and education providers comply with the Code of Practice of Essential Schools, which states that the organisation must ensure all children are taught “the fundamental values and principles of education”.
According to its website, NEATCA is “a government-funded body, working to ensure Australian schools, teachers and education personnel uphold these values and uphold the fundamental principles of Australian education”.
It has been in a legal dispute with the NECA since at least 2015.
The case was launched in July, 2016 by musician Mark Cocker, who alleged that NEATC breached his rights by selling his music rights for commercial profit.
He said NEATIc had breached the Code when it sold his rights to a music school for $10,000 to Universal Music Australia, which is also a member.”NEATIC was using the music rights and the music to make a commercial profit,” he said.
“There was no legal basis for that.”
Cocker alleged that the school had breached its duty of care to him and his family by selling the rights for money.
In December 2016, the court heard that NEACc had not received the court order to remove the NEATca logo from its website and that the NEA was not legally liable for the breach.
However in February 2017, the Court of Appeal upheld the NEACca case.
In the decision, Justice Andrew Gorman said the school was not liable for breaching the Code because it did not act in a “responsible manner” in dealing with the NEATS claim.
“This is an action which is not likely to be challenged by the plaintiff, because he is entitled to no compensation for his loss,” he wrote.
“The school was acting within its statutory duty of fairness.”‘
You have to look after your own rights’It was not until a year after the court decision that NEATS appealed against the court’s decision and the court was again told by the NERCCA that it had not fulfilled its duty to remove all the NEATA logos.
However NEATS argued that it was the responsibility not to put the logos on the website.
“You have got to look at your own personal rights, your own individual rights, that is a matter for you, your parents and your own children, your school and your parents,” said NEATS lawyer Michael De Lucis.
“Your parents have to be concerned about you, and they have to understand your rights, and you have got no right to do something that is going to cause your parents pain.”
That’s the point of the appeal.
“In February 2018, the NEACCA was found not to have complied with the court ruling and a judge ordered the NEACTC to remove its logo.
The court said that it did this by using a different logo and that it would not be appropriate to include the NEATT logo on the school’s website.NEATS appealed to the High Court, which heard the case in August 2018.
The High Court ruled in favour of NEATS and in February 2019 the court decided to review the case and the NEMA awarded