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Music Industry Terms for the Uncool

Do people say “cool” anymore? I’ve always been more of a cool beans person myself, but I was always in the minority. I have spent most of my career explaining complex legal terms in plain language. Now I spend time explaining everyday terms in the context of legal contracts, but still in even plainer language. I have compiled a list of terms that you may come across in music or entertainment contracts for music licenses,...

The Positive Impact on Women Demanding Work-Life Balance

Men and women are not the same. They do not face the same challenges in the workplace and they do not face the same discrimination. Where men and women are the same in the legal world is the abuse and mistreatment by the court system and peers in extending courtesies Recently, I had two experiences that highlighted the plain vanilla struggle between men and women in the workplace that persists. Fortunately, these experiences reinforced...

Deep Fakes: The Current Status of the Law

This summer the US Copyright Office issued a report entitled “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence: Digital Replicas.” The report resulted from both the current concerns regarding the legal issues surrounding the use of “deepfakes” which are digital replica technologies that falsely depict a person. The report was the result of nearly a year of information gathering starting in August 2023. The report concluded that the current laws were insufficient to protect individuals. While various state laws...

What Happened When I Disconnected From the World for 7 Days?

I took the month of August off. Sort of. I had a bunch of running around to do and we had planned our first ever 2-week vacation. For the first half of the month, I caught up on various CLEs some outstanding work, took the pup to the vet, and ran my son to YouTube camp. Not really relaxing, but needed. But then I legit took two weeks of vacation. For the first week of...

Stop Using the Grave Risk of Harm Defense to Shelter Kidnappers from Returning Children Under the Hague Abduction Convention

Over the past decade, the use of the “grave risk of harm” defense has become the “go to” defense by respondents in litigation. This is in part due to the attorneys who representing the parent who improperly removed the child from her home state arguing that the domestic abuse by one parent against the other is effectively per se a grave risk of harm to the child. As I will discuss further below, this conclusion...

Artists and Contracts: Key Terms to Consider in Negotiating and Reviewing Contracts

The foundation of the entertainment industry is intellectual property. At their core, the contracts used in the industry are designed to outline the protection of the rights and the payment of money for their use. Studios, labels, agents, venues, producers and other industry agencies and professionals, often have a team of lawyers drafting contracts to protect their interests. Often, artists have unequal bargaining power or simply lack the access to a lawyer to assist. Whether...

Lawyers Suck – But You Need One to Review Your Contract

Listen, any lawyer who tells you that being a lawyer is amazing or fun or even satisfying is full of BS. Lawyers suck. Ever ask a lawyer a question. The answer is always, “It depends.” In fact, I once saw an ad for a “Magic 8-ball for lawyers.” All of the answers were “It depends.” It’s true. We really can’t give you a straight answer. There is a reason for that. The first day of medical...

The start of any discussion of copyright in the United States begins with the U.S. Constitution, Article I section 8, clause 8, “The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Over the years, Congress has enacted several statutes, with the most recent being the Copyright Act of 1976. Copyrightable works...

What Constitutes Copyright Infringement? Copyright infringement occurs when a party violates any of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights. Assuming ownership of a valid copyright and no applicable authorization, infringement requires both of the following: the alleged infringer, as a factual matter, copied from the copyright owner’s work in a manner that implicates the copyright owner’s exclusive rights (eg, reproduction, public performance); and the alleged infringer appropriated enough of the copyright owner’s original expression to give...

Wills and Trusts

These days there are tons of online services that will allow you to draft your own will or trust. They are cheap. That’s because you get what you pay for: a standard form that you fill with your personal information, without any guidance or anyone to ask for help. When you hire a lawyer to prepare your will, trust, or both, you get personalized service. You get exactly the documents you need and want based...

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