WHO OWNS IMAGES?

Some San Francisco muralists are suing Bill Gates’ giant photo image company Corbis because Corbis is selling photos of murals in the Bay Area. The images include copyright notices but the owner is listed as the photographer and not the muralist. – Law.com 11/20/00

NUNN TO QUIT NATIONAL

Trevor Nunn says he won’t seek a new term as head of London’s National Theatre when his contract expires in 2002. Criticism of Nunn has flourished in recent months in the press. “Sources at the National said Nunn had been “intensely irritated” by the criticisms, given the number of awards and sell-outs during his regime.” – The Independent (UK)

THE UNPREPOSSESSING NOBEL WRITER

Just who is Gao Xingjian, the Chinese writer who won the 2000 Nobel for literature? “Mr. Gao has 18 plays, 4 works of literary criticism and 5 books of fiction to his name, but his entire oeuvre has been banned on the Chinese mainland since 1985, while his best-known novel, ‘Soul Mountain,’ a lyrical account of a long journey through the Chinese backlands, has so far been published only in Taiwan, Sweden, France and Australia.” – New York Times

CONTRACTING TO DANCE

The Australian Ballet postpones a major work and schedules it for the opening of its 2001 season, then discovers its contract to perform the work has run out. “The contract, believed to date from 1986, stipulated that for 10 years the Australian Ballet had the rights to stage the work in-house, that is, without a repetiteur. After that, a new contract would need to be renegotiated and a repetiteur flown out to re-stage the work.” – Sydney Morning Herald