Legal Authority

Legal Authority: How I made contact, found this person and why they are a good choice.  I found a entertainment lawyer I knew from elementary school named Samuel Rogoway. I was going to find just a miscellaneous lawyer but I found that it is much more important finding some one who specializes in the questions that I am asking, because “One of the major challenges for legal institutions in regulating copyrights is simply that modern intellectual property is so easy to copy” (Jeffery F. Beatty; Susan S. Smauelson ).  He explained to me as the book did as well about. Many consumers are in the habit of violating the law by downloading copyrighted material—music, movies and books—for free.

(Jeffery F. Beatty; Susan S. Smauelson ).  He also agreed with the book about, “He seem to believe that if it is easy to steal something, then the theft is somehow acceptable. In one survey of adolescent’s aged 12 to 17, 75 percent agreed with the statement, “file sharing is so easy to do, it's unrealistic to expect people not to do it.” (Jeffery F. Beatty; Susan S. Smauelson )  He almost quoted the exact same thing about, The entertainment world used to turn a blind eye, but illegal downloading is threatening the viability of recording companies, movie studios, and publishers.

The statistics are compelling: in 2008, 40 billion songs were downloaded illegally, which is as much as 95 percent of all downloaded music!.  (Jeffery F. Beatty; Susan S. Smauelson )

Week 8 EOC: 10 Legal Questions

AUDIO LEGAL QUESTION

1.      

1.  What are copyright laws?   The copyright holder licenses the work, or authorizes an agent to license work.    Some copyright holder use a creative commons license, giving up some rights such as payments for others such as attribution.

2.  How do I negotiate record deals and songwriter agreements?  There is a thing called musical clearance what that is there are any number of parameters that get factored into obtaining a formal music clearance quotes, such as specific rights and type of media required, term territory, number of units, unit price, step deals, bumps, options or rollovers, corporate policy of the licensor, length of usage, type of usage, profit or  non-profit status, project budget, type of project and subject matter, other composition/recordings within the project, multiple publishers, samples, copyright renewal and or ownership issues, popularity and licensing history of the song or recording, current artist management restrictions and guidelines.

3.  How do you calculate record royalties?  You need to know the AHRA, which is the recording artist royalties.  These are payments that were created from the enactment of the audio home recording act by US congress.  The AHRA imposes an obligation on importers and manufacturers of digital audio recording devices and media to submit a royalty payment set by the statute to the register of copyrights.  The AHRA provides that 66 2/3 /% of those royalties shall be allocated to a sound recording fund.  The act further provides that 2 5/8% of the sound recording fund shall be placed in a escrow account managed by an independent musician who have performed on sound recording distributed in the united states; and that 1 3/8% shall be similarly placed in a escrow  account  managed by an independent administrator appointed by AFTRA, and the record companies and distributed to non featured vocalists.

4.  What is a music manager? A music manager (or band manager) may handle career areas for bands, singers, and djs. A musician or band may hire a music manager, or the manager may discover the band, and the relationship is usually contractually bound with mutual assurances, warranties, performances guarantees, and so forth. The manager's main job is to help with determining decisions related to career moves, bookings, promotion, business deals, recording contracts, etc. The role of music managers can be extensive and may include similar duties to that of a press agent, promoter, booking agent, business manager (who are usually tour cpa, or tour manager, and sometimes even a personal assistant.

5.   Music attorney?  Do you need an entertainment lawyer on a one time only basis, or do you need to keep a lawyer on retainer? Do you need help with contract negotiation or dealing an intellectual property right violation?

Music lawyers are specialized entertainment lawyers, and within the world of music lawyers, many attorneys have further specialized in dealing with a certain part of the industry. Understanding what you need legal help with will make it easier for you to find a lawyer who is up to the task. Knowing whether you are looking to build a long term relationship with a lawyer will also impact the process.

6.   How do I protect my band or artist name through trademark protection?   The selection of a band name creates a host of legal issues.  Obviously, this brief article cannot touch on every legal and intellectual property issue that relates to a band name.  Instead, this article is primarily focused on trademark law.  The most vital and valuable trademarks in the music business are the names of bands and individual performers.  Band names serve the important function of identifying the artist goods and services.

7.  Developing an agreement among band members?    As viral media makes it easier for bands to spread and popularize their music without a record label, even garage bands must start taking the prospect of band agreements seriously.  Band contracts allow members to anticipate and prevent arguments over royalty distribution, song and image rights, band composition and any other problems that may arise during the bands lifespan, in order to avoid spending large sums of money on contract lawyers, band members can opt to sit down and create their own contracts.  These contracts are legally binding and when properly written, will be upheld in courts if a dispute does arise.

8.  Working with music publishers?  In the music industry, a music publisher or publishing company is responsible for ensuring the songwriter and composer receive payment when their compositions are used commercially. Through an agreement called publishing contracts a songwriter or composer "assigns" the copyright of their composition to a publishing company. In return, the company licenses compositions, helps monitor where compositions are used, collects royalties and distributes them to the composers. They also secure commissions for music and promote existing compositions to recording artists, film and television

The term originally referred to publishers of sheet music.. In the late 19th century sheet music was the primary commercial use of musical compositions. Today, the two businesses have diverged, and the large companies known as "music publishers" typically are no longer in the business of producing printed music.

The copyrights owned and administered by publishing companies are one of the most important forms of intellectual property in the music industry. (The other is the copyright on a master recording which is typically owned by a record company.) Publishing companies play a central role in managing this vital asset.

9.  What would I need to make a business plan?  Five steps 1. Executive summary 2. Products and services 3. Marketing plan 4. Management plan 5. Financial plan

10. what about those steps is important to my business plan?  They are crucial for a business to work in the industry.  To have a successful business those plans need to be fallowed to every word and elaborated in detail.

Copy right laws?

2.       In the state of Texas, is it legal to audio tape in the work place?

3.       Negotiating record deals and songwriter agreements

4.       Generating income from your songs

5.       Calculating your record royalties step-by-step

6.       Protecting your music through copyright law

7.       Hiring agents, managers and music attorneys

8.       Protecting band names through trademark protection

9.       Organizing your band or music-related venture as a business

1.   Developing an agreement among band members

1.   Working with a music publisher

Part One. Ownership and Copyright.

1. How a song differs from a sound recording
2. Obtaining copyright protection
3. Registering copyrights with the United States Copyright Office
   1. benefits
   2. application requirements
   3. poor man's copyright as an alternative to formal registration
4. What is a copyright?
   1. exclusive rights in songs
   2. exclusive rights in sound recordings
5. Forms of copyright ownership
   1. joint works
   2. works made for hire
6. Duration of copyright
7. Use of copyright notice
8. Copyright Infringement
   1. determining if a work has been infringed
   2. the fair use exception/how much can be copied?

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Part Two. Musical Groups.

1. Protecting the name of a musical group
   1. trademarks and service marks
   2. choosing a protectible name
   3. trademark registration
   4. conducting a trademark search
   5. maintaining a trademark
   6. if someone else uses the group name
2. Taking care of business
   1. partnership law
   2. what happens if the group breaks up
   3. written agreements among group members
   4. forming a corporation or limited liability company

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Part Three. Managers, Agents and Union Membership.

1. Roles of talent agent, personal manager
   and business manager
2. Selecting representatives
3. Common terms in agreements with talent
   agents, personal managers and business managers
4. The role of the music attorney
5. Union Membership

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Part Four. Recording Contracts.

1. Major record labels versus independent record labels
2. Common terms in a recording contract
   1. exclusivity
   2. duration
   3. recording costs, advances and renouncement
   4. creative control
   5. delivery of masters
   6. royalty rates
   7. warranties, representations and indemnification
   8. special provisions for musical groups
3. Step-by-step calculation of record royalties

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Part Five. Music Publishing and Songwriter Agreements.

1. Music publishing defined
2. Songwriting license royalties
   1. mechanical licenses
      1. compulsory licenses
      2. right of publicity
      3. controlled composition clause
   2. performing rights licenses
      1. performing rights societies
   3. synchronization licenses
   4. print licenses
3. Common terms in a songwriter agreement
   1. single song agreement versus exclusive term agreement
   2. duration
   3. ownership of songs
   4. creative control
   5. delivery of songs
   6. royalties and advances
4. Songwriter as his/her own music publisher
   1. pros and cons
   2. affiliating with a performing rights society
   3. setting up and running your company
5. Co-publishing Agreements and Administration Agreements

Closing

EOC 7 How do I intend to find a Lawyer.

EOC 7 How do I intend to find a lawyer?

I went to high school with a girl named Shawna Dixon and she is a lawyer now I plan to find her on face book and ask her some questions.  Also next Tues and wed I am a witness to a wrongful termination of a ex coworker from Anthem Institute and I will just slide some questions in on her when we meet to prep for trial on Tues.  I have no problem finding lawyers because I went to a technical high school and I graduated like 17 years ago so many of my friends are now very successful lawyers in Portland Oregon and they were great friends of mine and I am sure they have no problem helping me with anything I need.  I have dealt with many legal issues in my past.  I am pretty sure though I will be asking questions Tues with the lawyer I am meeting with for the wrongful termination attorney with.  I may ask the Tues lawyer the first five questions and ask my friend Shawna the next five questions.   Either way I will finish the project with no problem with my contacts.  Although I was not  here on that day I did finish what we did in class.

EOC 6 Illicit trade

EOC ILLICIT TRADE

Legal

Moral

Ethical

Financial

I think that the legal issue is it is illegal to make fraudulent things and use a trademark name.  Morally it is wrong because in doing so many people are hurt by getting human slaves to peddle the goods as well as make the product.  Ethically it is wrong because by doing this illicit trade it is bringing much more corruption with drugs and human trafficking.  Financially it is damning because the true originator or the trademark name is not getting the proper buyers especially since you can by knock offs at a fraction of the cost.  The underground or the black market is flourishing which brings in corruption of for example drug trades and other profitable illegal business. An ethical person would not promote in illegal activity because of the domino effect it has on the right way of living life.  The legal way of life is by the book and the black market does not profit off that type of business.  Morally buying illegal knock offs is supporting drug activity and human slaves which is horrible and corrupt.  Financially if the black market ends up being the owner of our economy essentially we will have anarchy and will eventually be a third world country or even back to slavery days where only the drug lords will have ultimate control.

EOC 5 Apple vs. Samsung

EOC 5 apple and Samsung

“Today's verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer," Samsung said. (letzing, 2012).  This was a case of infringement because apple came out with the smart phone first and Samsung which is an android product basically waits for apple to put out there product and then Samsung steals the ideas and markets it.  "It is time for peace," (letzing, 2012).  That statement was made because now that the smart phones have been around a while, android who came with their smart phone after apple has since then been competitive and apple has used android apps in their apple store for consumers.  Apple claims that graphics and everything have been stolen. “ Few surprises came out during the case itself. Most of the key evidence—including Samsung internal strategy documents and designs of other devices that Samsung says proves Apple didn't develop the ideas first” (letzing, 2012).  So as you heard from the developer themselves they did come up with their own ideas in technology, but apple did win the initial case for their smart phone technology.  I really think that it should be free game now when it comes to technology, but shouldn’t Samsung be able to sue as well for original ideas that are used in the itunes store?  Most likely, but will they?

EOC week 4 snowden

I don’t believe that our information that has gone digital should be public information.  This breach in confidentiality is an absolute violation to legal contracts signed every day in health offices around the United States.   “The Office for Civil Rights enforces the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information; the HIPAA Security Rule, which sets national standards for the security of electronic protected health information; the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, which requires covered entities and business associates to provide notification following a breach of unsecured protected health information; and the confidentiality provisions of the Patient Safety Rule, which protect identifiable information being used to analyze patient safety events and improve patient safety.” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services).  I have worked in many dental offices, including Kaiser Permanente, which is a huge HMO which has digital information on peoples HIV and AIDS status which is not considered public knowledge or even anyone’s knowledge, it is considered highly classified and confidential. 

If these leaks are made public then everyone in let’s say Kaiser should or shouldn’t be fired on the spot because there contracts on HIPPA state, “if Notification of the federal government if there is an incident involving Medicare member/patients; l Notification of individual member/patients whose PHI was illegally accessed, used or disclosed; and l The individual workforce member(s) responsible for the incident may be subject to corrective action, up to and including termination.” http://kpnet.kp.org/national/compliance/program/privacy_security.html (1 of 4)11/29/2007 3:27:48 PM.   Also with this breach of privileged information being leaked means that not only the privacy contracts signed has been violated, but also the thousands of dollars that have been placed to protect the privacy, print the contracts, supplied the training for employees and paid the lawyers for confidentiality cases in health care have been completely wasted and violated.  http://kpnet.kp.org/national/compliance/program/privacy_security.html