Copyrites (1998)

• 74%
• 1998
• Documentary
• Kim Mordaunt
• Cathy Eatock

The film includes the story of a successful court case brought by 8 Aboriginal Australian artists, including Banduk Marika, against a Perth company which had used their designs on rugs made in Vietnam, without permission nor payment to the creators. In 1993, it was found that Marika's print "Djanda and the Sacred Waterhole" (1988) had been reproduced without permission on rugs. The artists sought reparations under the Copyright Act 1968 and Trade Practices Act. A total of eight artists took action against the company, and in 1994 the Federal Court of Australia awarded damages of A$188,000 to the artists and ordered that the rugs be released to them. This was the largest penalty awarded for copyright infringement against Australian artists up to that time, and included compensation for cultural damage stemming from the unauthorised use of sacred imagery.