Case scenario

When Anna was a baby, her mother, (Ginny) had a written a popular Christmas song. The copyright to the song was owned by Ginny's employer, a production company. As part of a settlement of an employment dispute, her mother had acquired the right to receive royalty income from the song for 10 years. Anna was only 5 years old when Ginny died so the right to the royalty income was settled on a trust for Anna. Artie was the trustee of that trust. The royalty income derived by the trust was considerable.

When Anna was 12, the rights to the royalty income was coming up for renewal and the production company told Artie that they did not want to renew the agreement with Anna and the company was very definite about this decision. On hearing this Artie began discussing with the production company the possibility of purchasing the right to the royalty income for a further 10 years himself. The production company agreed to this, and so when the royalties agreement expired it was transferred to Artie. When Anna turned 18 she found out what Artie had done.

Required:

Outline the legal issues in this scenario and advise Anna of her legal rights and what remedies might be available to her.