Protection For Film - Or Not?

It has been the common practice in the film industry for any one making a new work based upon or inspired by an existing film to obtain the consent of the owners of the original film before embarking on their new work. However, a recent case involving an advertisement for Guinness has brought to light the limited protection afforded to film makers by copyright law.

The Guinness case concerned a claim by a film director, Mehdi Norowzian, that the advertising agency, Arks Limited and their client, Guinness had infringed his copyright in his short film entitled "Joy". The film "Joy" showed a character dancing around in a skittish manner and made extensive use of jump cut editing techniques. Mr Norowzian claimed that Arks copied his film in the making of the well known advertisement entitled "Anticipation" which features a man dancing in a skittish, jumpy fashion (using the same jump editing techniques used in "Joy") whilst waiting for his pint of Guinness to settle. "Joy" had