A man claiming to be the great-nephew of the man depicted on the 1995 $50 note design is demanding that the Reserve Bank pay him in return for permission to use the image.
Australian Associated Press
But the RBA has knocked back Allan “Chirpy” Campbell’s bid for recognition as the owner of any image depicting inventor David Unaipon (1872-1967), on the grounds that “look mate, why don’t you just fuck off?”
The law in the area is complex, with most legal experts applying the rule of thumb that you need to get permission to use cartoon characters, but not so much for real people. An early draft of the 1966 $10 note was rejected after the Reserve was told it didn’t have the rights to characters from The Jetsons.
Mr Campbell also wants a payoff for his lawyer’s “ten years’ work” on the case, although the note was released in 1995. Mr Campbell only noticed the note in 1998 after his local ATM ran out of twenties.
The longtime Aboriginal activist is playing hardball with the nation’s central bank, telling AAP that “They’ve got to renegotiate this time a proper settlement, not a tea leaf, sugar and flour syndrome.”
‘Tea leaf, sugar and flour syndrome’ is a reference to the RBA’s record of handing out cooking ingredients to the Monash, Melba, Cowan, Flynn, Reiby, Paterson, Gilmore and royal families.
But Mr Campbell has indicated he won’t be bought off so easily, demanding $30 million in compensation. His fallback position is that the RBA “spots me a fifty.”
Failing that, Mr Campbell has flagged that he may discover that he’s related to “the moustache guy on the hundie.”