Help protect Judi Kenneally's Artist Copyright

My name is Judi Kenneally. I'm a Victorian-based Australian visual artist with a Fine Art and Design degree from Deakin University.

Artistic copyright ownership is an essential fundamental issue for all creative artists, however, Artists' copyrights are often unfairly exploited.

I am currently involved in a serious copyright dispute over the ownership of the original, iconic artworks I created back in 1982/83 for the cover of the band Goanna's“Spirit of Place” album and other related artwork. I am the creator of these works, and at no time have I ever assigned or licensed any person or company the right to exploit them commercially.

For 40 years, Warners and Goanna have benefitted from using my artwork for the album cover and promotional and marketing purposes, as that was my original intention. Shane Howard, lead singer-songwriter of Goanna, is now claiming ownership of my artwork. Since March this year, it has been copied and sold on merchandise of T-shirts, mugs and tea towels on Goanna’s current 40th-anniversary tour of Spirit of Place without my permission or any licensing agreement.

Since their creation in the early eighties, I have never commercially exploited these works. The fact that the person claiming my work is a fellow creative artist, a person I once respected, and a close friend of 40 years makes this so much worse.

This situation has distressed me profoundly, dealing with the reality of their undervaluing of me as an artist.

I worked with the band for six years, from 1979 – 1985. Goanna did not employ me as I had my own graphic design business Goannart and merchandise business, Goannamanorfacture as a Sole Trader. I produced and ran all the merchandising of the artwork.

For 36 years, my ownership of my artwork was not contested by Shane or the band. Australia Post in 2006 and the Victorian Arts Centre in 2018 recognised me as the copyright owner of the Spirit of Place artwork.

The opinion of my highly regarded Copyright Lawyer is that my ownership of my copyrights is indisputable, and all claims by Shane Howard have no legal merit in Copyright Law whatsoever.

As extensive efforts to reasonably settle this matter have failed over the past six months, my only option is to marshal my resources and prepare for a legal fight in court. Enough is enough.

Either I fight for my artistic rights in court or walk away and give up all rights to 6 years of artwork. On principle, I am not walking away.

As with all things legal, this will undoubtedly be expensive.

Therefore, I am launching this Go Fund Me campaign to help raise the necessary funds for legal expenses. I am thankful for the support I have already received, but the fight is far from over. I hope everyone who knows me and cares about Artists’ rights will donate whatever they can afford. Every dollar counts and is greatly appreciated.

Please make a stand with me, Judi Kenneally to protect Artists' Copyrights.