National Law Varsity Launches Centre for Fashion Laws

 Visakhapatnam: The Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University here has initiated a centre for fashion, media and entertainment laws (C-FAME) on the university campus in Sabbavaram in Anakapalli district.

Claiming that this was the first-of-its-kind centre in the country, vice chancellor D Surya Prakasa Rao said, “Fashion is a ‘personal choice’ of each individual and that right must be protected by laws. The basis for these laws would be the Constitution of India that granted the people a set of Fundamental Rights.”

He said that with the growing dynamism in the fashion, media and entertainment sectors, it was crucial that the legal practice in these sectors got strengthened.

The Centre organised a seminar on the subject on Tuesday, which was addressed by Namrata Pahwa, a leading advocate in this specific field.

She highlighted the need to protect the interests of designers in case their right on their creative work was appropriated or stolen by someone or any organisation. It must be studied as to how courts have resolved such issues when such disputes occurred, even in the absence of specific laws.

Over-the-top media service (OTT) has come into existence but there existed no law to govern the same, she said.

Pahwa explained how to draft a contract between the production house and participants as regards the famous “Big Boss,” wherein she had drafted such contracts. “When a content is created by an artist and he or she gives it to a production house, this is owned by the production house thereafter, not by the content writer. The same rule would apply for movies, reality shows, news material and sports,” she said.

Convener of the centre, Jogi Naidu, emphasized the necessity for having special laws exclusively for addressing contractual disputes related to fashion, media and entertainment.