Lead role in legal drama

Jo Pilkington says she assumed her company's previous owners had sorted out any copyright issues with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Photo / Natalie Slade

An Auckland costume-hire service is at a loss to know what to do with eight 2.5m-tall Oscar statues after legal threats from the United States.

First Scene, of Morningside, has been hiring out the statues for 14 years.

Last month, however, lawyers for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a writ saying it can no longer hire or sell them.

First Scene's general manager, Jo Pilkington, said: "We're not sure what to do with them, so at the moment they're just standing outside. We're not aware if that's breaching copyright, but we've got to store them somewhere."

The company will be holding a "clean out" garage sale this Saturday, but cannot offer the Oscars due to the legal problems.

"It's just absurd. I would have thought that the statues were actually promoting the Oscars and I just cannot see why the academy have a problem with it."

Ms Pilkington said the company was told in the legal documents that the academy owned the copyright to the image and no one else had been issued a licence to the copyright.

First Scene obtained the statues from TVNZ in 1996 and has since hired them out for $150 for theme parties. Charities have used them for free.

"We made the assumption when we purchased the business that any copyright issues would have been sorted out," Ms Pilkington said.

Legal notices on the academy's website state that Oscar statues "may not be used as a stage property or article of set dressing in any stage, television or motion picture production not produced by the academy".

It also says: "Award winners shall not sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette ... without first offering to sell it to the academy for the sum of US$1."

First Scene is not the first in New Zealand to fall victim to the academy's protection of its copyright.

In 1999, bar owner Laurence Henderson was forced to change the name of Oscars Bar and Cafe in Devonport after legal threats from the academy's lawyers.