CPD Course:
Even a Messi Show
Must Go On:
An Introduction to
Artists' Legal Rights
and Responsibilities

In February 2024, 40,000 fans paid from HK$880 to HK$4,880, and higher still on re-sale markets for tickets to see Lionel Messi, the Argentine professional footballer player and record-holding eight times winner of the Ballon d'Or, play in an exhibition football match in Hong Kong.  Messi did not play.  There was widespread condemnation and a feeling that fans had been misled.  Many demanded they should be refunded and some even argued that Mess should have been made to play in the game.  The incident raises a number of issues regarding artists’ legal rights and responsibilities.

This three-hour seminar will consider the legal rights and responsibilities of artists generally.  First, the seminar will consider the contractual rights and responsibilities of artists including whether Lionel Messi could be made to play football.

The seminar will then consider tortious rights and responsibilities, including negligence and defamation.  This will include the rights of artists injured through negligence of other artists or organisers of events, and artists injuring other artists, employees or audience members.  Such incidents may also result in criminal liabilities.

The seminar will then consider intellectual property rights and responsibilities including copyright and moral rights.  The seminar will consider whether dance may be copyrighted and how artists may deal with signing away their copyright too soon by being Fearless and following Taylor Swift.

The seminar will also consider the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on artists’ copyright and moral rights.  The issue of moral rights and derogatory use of artists’ work will be considered including the destruction of artists’ work by artists and others.

The seminar will also consider attempts to provide artists with resale rights under statutory schemes such as droit de suite, attempts to include resale rights in contracts, and the use of blockchain technology.

The seminar will conclude by considering the new issues and opportunities for artists from the development of the concept of intangible cultural heritage and cultural concerns such as cultural appropriation and cultural theft.

• The contractual rights and responsibilities of artists;
• George Michael v Sony: Panayiotou and others v Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd.  ([1994] ChD 142;
• The tortious rights and responsibilities of artists;
• Negligence including artists being injured - Li Kai-yin and Mirror;
• Injuring the audience - Trophy Eyes and the dangers of “stage diving”;
• Criminal prosecution for injuring the audience - Eric Cantona and Kung Fu kicks;
• Defamation in songs: Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi and Yu Yuk-hing;
• The intellectual property rights and responsibilities of artists;
• Why Taylor’s Versions may not break copyright;
• Is dance copyrighted? Is choreography just “poses” and music just “notes”: Hanagami v Epic Games Inc, U.S.  District Court for the Central District of California;
• Artificial intelligence and intellectual property rights;
• Moral rights and derogatory use of artists’ work including the destruction of artists’ work by artists and others;
• Artists’ resale rights - droit de suite and contractual resale rights including blockchain;
• Issues and opportunities for artists from intangible cultural heritage, cultural appropriation and cultural theft.