When artists (i.e., singers, rappers, musicians, songwriters, singers, producers, etc.) come to me with a contract there are several points in the contracts that I make sure to point out to them before they go signing their lives away. When it comes to Entertainment Law, a vast majority of my practice deals with negotiating, modifying and drafting of agreements between two or more parties wanting to do business. You have agreements such as Producer-Artist Agreements, Exclusive Artist Recording Agreements, Publishing-Songwriter Agreements, etc. The titles of such agreements might seem to tell you what the agreement is about, but when you delve deeper into the language (i.e., contractual terms) of the agreement, you’ll find that there are many sticky and complex terms and clauses that could lock you in as a “slave” to the party who drafted the agreement.
Artists signing to Record Labels have to especially be careful. WARNING! THESE CONTRACTS ARE NOT DRAFTED TO BENEFIT YOU!!! You have to be careful prior to giving your “John Hancock” (i.e., your signature). The golden rule that lawyers live by when it comes to entertainment contracts is: “The person who drafts the contract benefits the most from it!”
When reading your contract you should always look for the paragraphs dealing with the following points:
1. Parties to the contract (i.e., Who is the contract between?)
2. The “TERM” of the agreement (i.e., the length of the agreement, exclusivity)3. Your obligations versus the obligations of the other party (i.e., how many
albums do you have to deliver?)
4. Royalties and Advances (i.e., How much?)
5. Any paragraphs dealing with Publishing and your rights in your creative
property (Don’t let them touch these without something BIG in return!!!)
6. Termination of the Contract (i.e., Are there any paragraphs that say how the
contract would be terminated?)
7. The LAW that will govern the contract (i.e., If there is a dispute, where
will disputes be litigated?)
My advice to you is that you should ALWAYS have someone who is knowledgeable about entertainment contracts look the contract over and explain it to you…like an Attorney…hint…hint!!!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Saturday, August 4, 2007
A Model's Sword
A Model Sword: Protecting Your Image
The courts in the United States have consistently held that people have a right to privacy. Consequently, a violation of that right would involve a person filing a lawsuit for the invasion of privacy. The right to privacy can be violated in several ways:
1. Revelation of confidential records
2. intrusion
3. creating a false light
4. exploitation
The way that’s relevant to those who are in the modeling industry is the fourth one: exploitation. Courts have held that an individual holds the rights to his or her own likeness to make money. An invasion of privacy can occur when one party uses an individual’s photo, likeness, or name without permission for advertising, marketing, or publicity. If someone does this you can sue for an invasion of the right to publicity.
In order to use a person’s photo, image or likeness you must either obtain a license to use the image or have the person sign a waiver stating that they give up any rights in the image being used! If you do not do this, you could find yourself involved in serious litigation for an invasion of their right to publicity and privacy!
A person who is an actor, model, or whom may have taken photographs for some event, publication, magazine, etc, must be careful about what rights they are giving away when signing a waiver. The language in the waiver has to be reviewed very carefully to make sure you LIMIT the ways your image or likeness can be used. You would hate for your image to show up on a billboard promoting cigarettes if you’re not a smoker! With today’s technology and advance software, an image can also be altered in ways not intended by the person giving permission!
So next time make sure you protect yourself by limiting the way a person can use your image. Consult an attorney (like myself!) if you’re not sure. Never, never, never sign a document that gives a person the right to use your image without reviewing it first!!!
The courts in the United States have consistently held that people have a right to privacy. Consequently, a violation of that right would involve a person filing a lawsuit for the invasion of privacy. The right to privacy can be violated in several ways:
1. Revelation of confidential records
2. intrusion
3. creating a false light
4. exploitation
The way that’s relevant to those who are in the modeling industry is the fourth one: exploitation. Courts have held that an individual holds the rights to his or her own likeness to make money. An invasion of privacy can occur when one party uses an individual’s photo, likeness, or name without permission for advertising, marketing, or publicity. If someone does this you can sue for an invasion of the right to publicity.
In order to use a person’s photo, image or likeness you must either obtain a license to use the image or have the person sign a waiver stating that they give up any rights in the image being used! If you do not do this, you could find yourself involved in serious litigation for an invasion of their right to publicity and privacy!
A person who is an actor, model, or whom may have taken photographs for some event, publication, magazine, etc, must be careful about what rights they are giving away when signing a waiver. The language in the waiver has to be reviewed very carefully to make sure you LIMIT the ways your image or likeness can be used. You would hate for your image to show up on a billboard promoting cigarettes if you’re not a smoker! With today’s technology and advance software, an image can also be altered in ways not intended by the person giving permission!
So next time make sure you protect yourself by limiting the way a person can use your image. Consult an attorney (like myself!) if you’re not sure. Never, never, never sign a document that gives a person the right to use your image without reviewing it first!!!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Know Your WORTH!
I have a lot of clients who come to me asking what they should charge for their services. It could be a producer wondering what to charge for production services or a beat. It could be a songwriter wondering what to charge for writing a song for another artist or a jingle for a commercial. A lot of the time they're just wondering what percentage they should take of the song (this shall be discussed in another blog!). I'll try to keep it simple when explaining how to determine your value, otherwise this would turn into a series of blogs.
In order to determine your value or your WORTH you have to figure out how much your time is worth. Say you applied for a job to work for McD's (Hey it's a living!). You'd go in negotiating what you want as an hourly rate. You and the hiring manager would go back and forth over what the pay rate would be and finally settle on a number that's satisfactory to both of you. Going in you at least know the minimum you should get, that is, minimum wage ($5.15/hour)!
Going into any negotiation you have to know what's the MINIMUM you will take. You can base this on something simple like an hourly rate such as what you are making at your current job. So if you are working for McD's at $8 an hour, then that's the minimum you'll take!
As an example, if you're a producer and you're not sure how much you'd charge a person for a beat, you could determine your mimimum fee by taking your hourly rate (i.e., $8/hour) and multiplying it by the number of hours it takes you to produce the beat. Now in the music world, making a great beat could take hours or days, and as we lawyers say: TIME IS MONEY!! So assume it took you 200 hours (that's about 8 days for you mathmaticians out there!). 200 hours times $8 per hour equals $1600 for a beat!
Now I know most of you are thinking, "It would never take me that long to do a beat!!" What you forget to factor in is all the EFFORT it took to produce this beat!What this involves is your BRAIN STORMING time (i.e., you just lounging around thinking about what the beat will be about, how many instruments will be involved, what the hook will be, etc.); your PRE-PRODUCTION time (i.e., what people and instruments you have to find or bring together to make the beat a reality); your PRODUCTION time (i.e., actually being in the studio or bedroom putting the beat together); the POST PRODUCTION time (i.e., editing of the beat, changes, remixes, etc.); and finally the "X" factor...your GUT FEELING about how much you feel the beat may be worth to the other side! Add all that time up and you may exceed 200 hours or more!!!!
When you think about it, the above advice can be applied to producing a beat as well as writing a hit song. You just have to figure out your MINIMUM and then negotiate up from there! Hopefully, you'll negotiate a number that's satisfactory to both sides, but before you begin...KNOW YOUR WORTH!!!!
In order to determine your value or your WORTH you have to figure out how much your time is worth. Say you applied for a job to work for McD's (Hey it's a living!). You'd go in negotiating what you want as an hourly rate. You and the hiring manager would go back and forth over what the pay rate would be and finally settle on a number that's satisfactory to both of you. Going in you at least know the minimum you should get, that is, minimum wage ($5.15/hour)!
Going into any negotiation you have to know what's the MINIMUM you will take. You can base this on something simple like an hourly rate such as what you are making at your current job. So if you are working for McD's at $8 an hour, then that's the minimum you'll take!
As an example, if you're a producer and you're not sure how much you'd charge a person for a beat, you could determine your mimimum fee by taking your hourly rate (i.e., $8/hour) and multiplying it by the number of hours it takes you to produce the beat. Now in the music world, making a great beat could take hours or days, and as we lawyers say: TIME IS MONEY!! So assume it took you 200 hours (that's about 8 days for you mathmaticians out there!). 200 hours times $8 per hour equals $1600 for a beat!
Now I know most of you are thinking, "It would never take me that long to do a beat!!" What you forget to factor in is all the EFFORT it took to produce this beat!What this involves is your BRAIN STORMING time (i.e., you just lounging around thinking about what the beat will be about, how many instruments will be involved, what the hook will be, etc.); your PRE-PRODUCTION time (i.e., what people and instruments you have to find or bring together to make the beat a reality); your PRODUCTION time (i.e., actually being in the studio or bedroom putting the beat together); the POST PRODUCTION time (i.e., editing of the beat, changes, remixes, etc.); and finally the "X" factor...your GUT FEELING about how much you feel the beat may be worth to the other side! Add all that time up and you may exceed 200 hours or more!!!!
When you think about it, the above advice can be applied to producing a beat as well as writing a hit song. You just have to figure out your MINIMUM and then negotiate up from there! Hopefully, you'll negotiate a number that's satisfactory to both sides, but before you begin...KNOW YOUR WORTH!!!!
Welcome to the DMEGLAW Blog Spot!
I'd first like to thank you for visiting my blog spot. What I hope to accomplish with this column is spreading awareness about different legal issues that many people will face in pursuing a career in the Entertainment, Music, Film, Television arenas as well as any general business advice.
I may even include a rant or two from time to time! I hope that you enjoy reading what I post and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop a note to me. I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have that may pertain to my blogs or just those which have been plaguing your mind!
You can also reach us on our website at www.dmeglaw.com!
I may even include a rant or two from time to time! I hope that you enjoy reading what I post and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop a note to me. I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have that may pertain to my blogs or just those which have been plaguing your mind!
You can also reach us on our website at www.dmeglaw.com!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)