Legal Liabilities in Entertainment Business

In the first podcast I reviewed entitled IP Law Concentration, Professor Andrew Beckerman-Rodau discussed various aspects of intellectual property.  He discussed topics such as: patent law, trade secrets, copyright law, etc.  The part of intellectual property that applied directly to my business was the part about copyright law.  Since I am opening up my own dance studio, there will be many artistic works that I need to protect.  Andrew touched on many benefits of getting your work copyrighted.  He explained how once you create your work, it automatically has a right to protection, but it just needs to be registered in case someone attempts to steal the work.  He also mentioned that there are very minimal costs when registering your work and that it is not difficult to do at all.  From this podcast, I took away a lot of information on intellectual property.  I know that once I start up my company, that I will need to have protection on all of my original works and I will need to ensure that anything in my business that I want protected will need to be registered properly.

In the second podcast I reviewed entitled A Seminar in Copyright Law with Entertainment Lawyer Greg Eveline, Greg discusses all of the aspects of copyright law and how it applies to artists.  He discusses the performance rights agencies and what they do, the benefits of a copyright, etc.  In the podcast, he compares copyrights to property rights.  He says that owning the copyright to your work is like owning your home; property is property and it should be equally protected.  He stresses and emphasizes the importance of protecting your works.  He also goes on to talk about First Right of First Use.  When he is discussing this topic, he is referring to musicians, but I can apply this to my dancers.  When they record their performances at my studio, no one else should have the right to use their performances in any way.  This podcast ties back into the fact that I need to protect my works.  Learning about copyright law now will help me protect any and all works I do in the future concerning my studio.

In the third and final podcast I reviewed entitled Whitney Broussard: Entertainment Lawyer withSelverne, Manelbaum, and Mintz, Whitney discusses many aspects of the music industry and the legal issues and struggles that the artists have to face.  One issue that caught my attention was when he was discussing the longevity of an artist’s career and their copyrights.  He talks about how if an artist really wants to pursue a long-term career that they should keep all of their copyrights because they will last longer than the artist.  This applies to my business because at some point, I would like for my studio to partner with a talent agency so the dancers have an opportunity to be managed once they have completed their training.  This information will help me aid my dancers in their careers, especially when they become big stars.

Legal Controversies in the Entertainment Industry

The first legal controversy I’m going to discuss is one about Prince.  Apparently Prince hired the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Taylor to handle all of his financial responsibilities for him, but then he turned around and didn’t even pay them for the services that they had provided to him.  He owes his lawyers over $700,000, but failure to pay that debt resulted in the firm filing a lawsuit against him in order to obtain that money from him.  In my personal opinion, Prince obviously has more than enough money to pay the law firm, so I believe he should just pay it.  They did a service for him and made his life easier, so he should respond in-kind and at least pay them what they are owed for their services.

The next legal controversy is regarding the group P.O.D.  The record label that P.O.D. is signed to, INO Records, had agreed to pay the group an advance in the amount of $400,000 prior to their next album.  INO failed to pay the group their advance because they felt as if P.O.D. hadn’t met their obligations to the label.  Since this was a direct breach of contract, P.O.D. is suing INO for at least the $400,000, and they will go from there.  I believe that INO should pay what they owe P.O.D.   When there is a contract/agreement involved in any matter, both parties should hold up to their end of the deal.  The article didn’t mention the details of the obligations that the group failed to live up to, so I’m a little on the fence about the issue, but at the same time, their contract did include an advance and it wasn’t paid.  I’m a firm believer of doing things by the book and in this case, INO needs to pay up.

The last controversy that I am going to discuss involves Nicki Minaj and her show, My Time Now.  When filming, they asked one of the street drummers that appeared in their shots if they could air the footage that they had taken of him and he refused.  MTV decided to air the footage despite the street drummer’s lack of consent and now he is suing both MTV and Viacom for the damages to his reputation and appearance.  Besides being a street drummer, he also teaches kids how to drum and his reputation is one for teaching children the good kind of music and not what is portrayed on T.V.  Nicki Minaj doesn’t represent what he is trying to teach his students, therefore, he didn’t want to be apart of the show.  When it was all said and done, he simply wanted to be compensated for the footage they took of him because they damaged his reputation and his business simultaneously.  If I were the street drummer, I would have done the exact same thing.  My morals and values come before any fame or spotlight and if I was trying to do something positive that involved young, impressionable children, then I wouldn’t want to tarnish their view of me either.