A Grass Roots Business and Legal Guide!
E-Book, Englisch, 656 Seiten
ISBN: 978-1-4835-5453-2
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)
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Chapter One Entertainment Attorneys The Pocket Guide to Entertainment Lawyers “Life is a board game…and the lawyers have read the rules on the top of the box…” D. Doucette We’ve all heard our share of lawyer jokes and some are actually warranted. Perhaps you’ve heard what some say is the first lawyer joke: “First kill all of the Lawyers.” William Shakespeare Even though this statement by William Shakespeare may sound funny, it is actually quite serious and may have quite an opposite meaning. Although we can’t possibly know what Mr. Shakespeare meant by this statement without asking him, many argue that Shakespeare was not saying that we should actually kill all of the lawyers, but rather his intention was to say that if there were no lawyers, then there would be nobody to take up for or be the advocate for the common man. In our society, with all its rules and regulations, lawyers are a necessity whether you like it or not and unless you want to have to read all of the rules and know a great deal of the laws that govern our everyday lives, then you are better off having a lawyer to protect your rights when you can’t do it yourself. So, for those of us in the entertainment industry that brings us to our first question. What is an entertainment lawyer? The term “Entertainment Lawyer” covers a wide spectrum of different types of practitioners. I have often heard it said that an entertainment lawyer is usually just a general practitioner that happens to do entertainment law or that just represents people or companies in the entertainment industry. That generalization can be very much true in some or even many cases, but entertainment lawyers come in all shapes and sizes as well as abilities. Some may strictly be negotiators and never set foot in a courtroom while others may be strictly litigation attorneys, who focus on entertainment related issues or who solely represent music companies for their litigation needs. Some entertainment attorneys work for big companies as in-house counsel and never represent individuals. More often than not, Entertainment Lawyers are a combination of different types of legal practitioners and they are able to focus on a wide spectrum of issues that face those of us in the music industry. Some entertainment lawyers were even musicians, songwriters, or artists in their “former” lives and some still are, but the law is a jealous mistress and to truly master the ins and outs of entertainment law requires a great deal of effort and time, which doesn’t leave much time for creative pursuits on much more than a part time basis, if at all. What does an entertainment lawyer do? Your entertainment lawyer can offer a number of different types of services to you and can be there (and most times should be there) to help you negotiate the maze of contracts that you will encounter during your entertainment career. But in some cases an entertainment lawyer may be required to handle certain personal matters for his entertainment clients such as divorce(s), wills, trusts, and even criminal matters as each of these types of matters may have certain types of entertainment issues. For instance, a divorce between parties where one or both parties is an artist or songwriter will have any number of different entertainment related issues such as the evaluation of a song catalogue, artist royalties, assignment of copyright(s), etc. Of course, if you are going through a nasty divorce, you may want to hire a divorce specialist but he will not usually be very well versed in entertainment issues and thus he will have to consult with an entertainment attorney to make sure that he has covered these important issues completely. Wills and trusts may have the same types of issues since copyright laws protect the creator of the copyright for his life plus seventy years so the client must have the foresight to protect his intellectual property rights long after he is gone. Also, copyright infringement can be a criminal matter as there are criminal penalties provided for in the copyright code. Finally, there are times when a client may have run abreast of the law by doing something like shooting a gun off his tour bus, getting a traffic ticket, getting a drunk driving charge, be arrested for playing a gig under what the venue or promoter deems to be a trademark infringement which also carries criminal penalties or any number of other criminal matters which can arise during the course of an entertainer’s life. When an entertainment client finds a lawyer that they trust, they like to deal with that lawyer even when they may have to hire another lawyer. I’ve seen all types of matters and all of the above are actual cases that were either handled by me, my firm, or another attorney. Your attorney may also be able to handle a number of different business issues such as setting up your business, helping out with tax issues, or he may work closely with your accountant in regards to business or tax issues. Regardless, it’s most important that your entertainment lawyer has an extremely good understanding of contract law and be well versed in all types of entertainment contracts. He must also be completely well versed in intellectual property rights, which are the cornerstone of the music industry: Copyright, Trademark, Trade Secrets, and sometimes Patents. However, we will save a more in depth discussion of contracts and intellectual property rights for later on in this book, as these issues are critical to anyone’s future in the entertainment industry and are worthy of a much more detailed discussion. Sometimes lawyers that purely negotiate are called solicitors while those that go to court are called barristers. This is especially true in Canada and the United Kingdom or in legal systems that model themselves after those countries. However that distinction is not normally used in the United States. Whatever he may be called: Attorney, Lawyer, Barrister, Solicitor, Counselor, or any number of other colorful names, he can play an invaluable role in your affairs and when you need one, all of the lawyer jokes that you’ve heard will seem a lot less funny. The most important thing to know is that a good entertainment lawyer can make a huge difference in your career. They can steer you out of trouble if you have the good sense to see them first before trouble happens or they can get you out of trouble once you’re in it, which can unfortunately happen in the blink of an eye. Unless you are extremely lucky, at some time or another you will encounter problems where you will be glad that you have a good attorney on your side. Unfortunately, more often than not people either can’t afford to see an entertainment lawyer for every issue that may come up or they just don’t think that they’ll need a lawyer until it’s too late. It’s very much like a car mechanic. If you see your mechanic regularly and keep your car in good shape, then you are less likely to have major problems. But bad things happen and cars break down and eventually you’ll end up paying for major repairs. This analogy can be very true of your legal needs. If you retain an experienced lawyer to assist you along the path of your career, you are much less likely to have to pay him to fix major problems down the road and you will be very glad that you retained a lawyer first. We all go into our business ventures with the anticipation that we’re going to be successful and that things are going to work out for the best. And why shouldn’t we? Nobody would go into any business venture without some degree of optimism, as well as hopes for some degree of success. However, more often than not, the people that you do business with don’t live up to their promises or some other unanticipated situation will arise where you will have wished that you had sought the advice of competent legal counsel. This is especially true when you sign an agreement that comes back to bite you, when you enter into some businesses deal that may go awry at some point in the future, or before some unanticipated event may arise where you are exposed to some legal liability. I can’t tell you how many of my clients completely trusted the people with whom they were working only to find out later on that they were being taken advantage of in more ways than one. Unfortunately, I saw a good deal of this type trust with creative or artistic types, as they were just glad to be offered any type of deal and they preferred to live their day-to-day lives without having to deal with the pressures of business issues, etc. In the case of songwriters, they’ve got enough to deal with just trying to write hit songs and to constantly crank out good material day after day and year after year. In the case of artists, they have enough to do touring, making appearances, recording in the studio, etc. and trying to keep themselves in a position that they won’t get dropped from their label and eventually fade into obscurity. This is why many songwriters sign publishing deals so that their publisher will handle their copyrights and why they hire business managers to handle their money so all they have to focus on is writing songs. This is also why most artists hire personal managers and/or business managers and sign record deals where all they are expected to do is be an artist. But no...
