Dear OBGers

I am not sure whether this is technically an “obligations” question or more of a property/rights of publicity question, but. . .

I was watching the Daily Show with John Stewart where he alluded to a ban by the Royal family on using footage of the wedding in satirical shows (http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-may-3-2011/exclusive---the-wedding-banners-uncensored) and from the segment it is obvious that Viacom (Comedy Central’s the corporate parent) was cautious as well. Stewart then referenced an Australian satirical program, The Chaser, changed its plans to run a satirical commentary at the wedding. See e.g., http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/palace-gags-the-chasers-take-on-royal-wedding-20110427-1dwg0.html . (Of course, if you watch the Stewart clip, you will see that this was hardly necessary, as the “real” news does quite a fine job of that all by itself).

I understand that if the BBC/AP videoed the wedding, they would own the copyright in their recording¸ and could contractually restrict downstream usages of the footage.  But at least as its being reported, this is not what happened, rather the Palace, placed restrictions on how footage of the event could be used by anyone, and presumably would prohibit The Chaser or The Daily Show from sending its own crews to London to film the events.

So my basic question is, (i) under English can someone (even if she is the Queen) own an event conducted in public, widely publicized, (not to mention more or less funded by the public)?  (ii) Assuming the answer is yes, would such a determination be binding as a matter of Australian law?

FWIW, I talked to an IP colleague in the hall and he was pretty confident that under US law (through some combination of the First Amendment, state privacy/right to personality law and federal IP law, no-one could lay claim to “owning” the royal wedding conducted a widely publicized event in public (contra the weddings of Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Bush) and certainly not a “public official.”

Perhaps the answers to these questions are well known in the Commonwealth, but I have not seen much about it in the US lawgosphere. (we are talking about Osama here)

Thanks

Chaim

Chaim Saiman

Associate Professor

Villanova Law School

610.519.3296

saiman@law.villanova.edu

http://ssrn.com/author=549545