Entertainment Legal Liabilities

When owning a recording studio there are many different legal liability issues that could occur. The first legal issue that could occur would be intellectual property. Trademarks and copyrights could be infringed unknowingly weather it be a simple symbol or color pattern to abut 20 seconds of someone else’s already copyrighted music. Trademarks are usually words, symbols slogans basically things that are used to identify the source of origin with products or services. Copyright protection usually covers literary and artistic expression. Which usually goes under books, music, paintings plays, movies and many more. In order to avoid anything from happening such as any legal trouble one should always take preventative actions. Some things that can be done is making sure that the music you are recording is not someone else’s and if it is you are not taking a substantial amount of their work. If you want to take a substantial amount of the previously recorded song you should ask for permission to use it from the rightful owner. More than likely they would be willing to agree but would want either a down payment or a certain percentage of the earnings from the song. Copyright infringement could be a very long and messy process to deal with when on either sides of the table. When dealing with trademarks the only time it would be ok to use is if you have permission from a competitor to use either that competitor’s logo or colors or something to indicate that it is them in a competitive commercial. Just as Charmin tissue does with Scott tissue. Attached you will find the following links helpful and useful when trying to understand exactly what is an intellectual property. You would also learn more in depth how to actually go about protecting your copyright with your copyright code.  

http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/intellectual-property-law/id388454392

Industry Liabilities

There are so many legal controversies going on nowadays, we do after all live in a sue friendly world. This month we will be going over the legal side of things in the entertainment industry. To start off the first controversy is about the whole Chris Brown and Drake scuffle that left about eight people injured and a few people hospitalized. Among the many people injured was Chris brown himself and Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs. Tony Parker is now filing a $20 million lawsuit against the New York Club W.I.P. for a scratched cornea he suffered doing the fight between the two celebrities. I think this could have been avoided and there was really no need to start throwing bottles in the first place. I also feel that $20 million is a bit excessive. 

The second legal controversy is about the Grammy award winning singer Lauryn Hill. The former Fugees singer will be facing three years in prison due to tax charges. From 2005-2007 she had reportedly earned $1.8 million and failed to file tax returns. Most celebrities get so caught up in the hype of making all that money they forget to pay their dues when its time and then they end up in situations like this. If she would have paid the money like she was supposed to then I feel she would be free and would still had some money left over from her successful days. 

The last and final controversy I want to discuss is one that happened back in 2009. Joe Satriani Sues Coldplay for plagiarism for the song “Viva La Vida”. The lawsuit was for coldplay allegedly taking substantial original portions of his 2004 song “If I could fly” in their 2008 hit “Viv La Vida”. Although it is clear and you can hear samples of his songs and riffs in theirs the case got dismissed upon stipulation. I think all this could have been avoided even if Coldplay didn’t know they took some of his original work when it came to their attention the could have offered him some money from the earnings of the song.