Copyright Law Blog

What New Artists and Musicians Can Do to Keep From Being Taken Advantage of – See a California Music & Entertainment Lawyer

August 4th, 2009 at 06:40am Under copyright infringement

There is probably no other profession than the music business where so many people will try to take advantage of you when you are starting out as an artist or musician if you don’t have a lawyer. Whether you or your band hails from Carlsbad, Encinitas, Del Mar, Solana Beach in San Diego, Anaheim or Santa Ana in Orange County, or Palm Springs, whether you developed your talent in La Jolla, or at Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach or Santa Barbara, and whether you live, studied or performed in Hollywood, Westwood, Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu, Palm Desert or La Quinta, when you are just starting out, the entertainment industry sees you as someone whom they can take advantage of.

Music contracts are notoriously long, complicated and almost undecipherable to all but a music lawyer. Thirty page contracts are nothing unusual in this business. And there are so many contracts you will be faced with as a musician. Sign the wrong contract and you can be married to a bad agent, promoter, manager, distribution deal, publishing deal or record company and have your career over before it ever began.

Besides the issues you will face with copyrighting your music and trademarking your band name and logo, if you have one, there are management contracts, recording contracts, publishing contracts, agent contracts, distribution deals, licensing contracts, promotion deals, festival and concert contracts, producer agreements and that doesn’t even get into the complex issues contained in many of these agreements.

A music lawyer must have knowledge of synchronization rights, digital rights, peer to peer file swapping, sampling, mechanical licenses, copyright infringement, publishing, advertising law, immigration, employment law, negotiation, ring tones, and have a good understanding of how music is made from mixing to mastering, from the roles of the producer to the needs of the musicians.

And yet, for the music lawyer, there is little that is as rewarding as being part of the recording process or helping a band make it to the big time.

My advice to musicians just starting out and being presented with any type of contract is that having their contract reviewed by a music lawyer is essential. You are likely being presented with the most one-sided type of contract in any business or profession. They are written by the attorneys for the company or manager who is handing it to you with absolutely no attempt to be even handed.

Worst of all, at this stage in your career, you have little leverage. No matter how good you think your music is, the music world is littered with great musicians who signed horrible contracts that stifled if not ended their careers. If you have to do an extra gig and save the money to have a contract reviewed, that’s what you need to do. Get yourselves a good music lawyer. Not a divorce lawyer. Not a trial lawyer. An entertainment lawyer who knows the music business and one, preferably, who is interested in music and who is willing to listen to your music.  

If you have an entertainment law, copyright or trademark issue in San Diego, Newport Beach, Irvine, Orange County, La Jolla, in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Huntington Beach Entertainment Lawyer and your Anaheim Entertainment Attorney. Be sure to hire a California law firm with entertainment law experience who can serve areas such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Anaheim, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fullerton, Del Mar, San Diego, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, La Jolla, Oxnard, Ventura, La Quinta, and Santa Barbara so you are properly represented and get the compensation you deserve.

If you have an entertainment law, or copyright dispute of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you.

The Marketing of Candidates Using Trademarks and Campaign Slogans in California and the U.s

July 29th, 2009 at 12:42am Under trademark law

No matter where you live in America, whether it is in Orange County, California, Los Angeles, CA, San Diego, La Jolla, Del Mar, Encinitas, Newport Coast, Carlsbad, Oceanside, San Marcos, Vista and Escondido or the cities of Huntington Beach, Westminster, Buena Park, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, and Laguna Hills, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Oxnard, Buena Park, Temecula, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Springs, or the rest of the U.S., unless you never turn on the television or read a newspaper, you have been bombarded by campaign slogans in the 2008 Presidential election.

Marketing experts know that the best way for a product or a candidate to be remembered is with a slogan or platform that is succinct and easy to remember. Marketing experts know that the best way for a product or a candidate to be remembered is with a slogan or platform that is succinct and easy to remember. 

In addition, a great slogan can be trademarked for use on products such as clothing, mugs, etc. Many people do not recall this, but when Barry Goldwater ran for President, they actually gave out or sold cans of “Goldwater” a soft drink at his rallies and other events.

As a marketing and advertising lawyer in California, one has to wonder if future candidates who create original slogans for his or her election in the future, won’t try to trademark their  slogans for use on products and try to copyright their advertising materials using the slogans to prevent the relentless variations made of a good slogan by other candidates.

So far in this Presidential campaign, the slogans have been less than rememberable. In fact with each candidate stealing or using variations of the same slogans each other has used or slogans that were used against them in the primary, none of the candidates marketing experts have done them a real service.

First, look at the ever changing slogans of Hillary Clinton which may have contributed to her downfall. First she had “Renewing the Promise of America” followed by “In to Win,” “Working for Change, Working for You,” “The Strength and Experience to Make Change Happen,” and “The Change We Need.” Somewhere along the way, there was also “Ready for Change, Ready to Lead.”The changes in campaign slogans by Hillary Clinton were so many and so often, that columnists were commenting if it was a new week, it was time for a new slogan.

Obama’s slogans have been fewer in number but faced with the many “Change” slogans used in the primaries by Hillary Clinton, his slogans of “Yes We Can” “Change We Can Believe In” and “Change We Need” have all failed to be memorable. His success as a candidate is acknowledged to be due to his own charisma, rather than that of his slogans.

McCain has had fewer slogans, and has primarily used “Country First” and “Change is Coming.” The “First” slogan was better for not using the word “Change” in it. It sounds patriotic and fit the candidate. But somewhere along the way, for better or more likely for the worse, some marketing expert convinced the campaign they needed to confuse the public’s perception of who would bring change and separate themselves from George Bush and so they added the slogan, “Change is Coming” which could be the worst of all the “Change” slogans because, duh, with either candidate, George Bush will be out and one of the two guys running will be in.

If these slogans are the best that almost unlimited campaign money can buy, one has to wonder if the campaigns shouldn’t have gone to additional marketing agencies, or attorneys to come up with their slogans. Even Barry Goldwater in 1964 had “In Your Heart, You Know He’s Right” which quickly became parodied with “In Your Guts, You Know He’s Nuts,” either one of which would have been better than “Change blah blah blah blah blah.”

If this year is all about the economy, where are slogans today like “It’s The Economy, Stupid” and “Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?” We all know change is coming. The economy is in the tank. Use a slogan that promises a better life, or if you have to be negative, at least blame the economic conditions on the other party’s candidate and use something we can all remember, like “This Is All His Fault” or let us know how the candidate really feels about the other’s leadership skills and use, “He Can’t Lead Us Out Of A Wet Paper Bag.”

An Orange County, Fullerton and Riverside California Trademark Lawyer’s Humorous Take on Trademark Infringement

July 18th, 2009 at 06:42pm Under trademark law

To a great many people in Southern California, the law regarding infringement of trademarks, copyrights or intellectual property in general is so confusing, it is humourous. Whether you live in Indio, Riverside, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, CA, San Diego, Huntington Beach, Orange County, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, or Newport Beach, you are as likely to be confused by the law of infringement as someone who lives in La Jolla, Anaheim, Irvine, Westwood, Santa Monica, Westminster, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Buena Park, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga or Yorba Linda.

 

The standard for whether there has been an infringement by one person of another’s intellectual property, namely their patent, trademark or copyrighted work, often comes down to whether there is the “likelihood of confusion” in the public.

 

To test this test set forth by the courts and by statutes, I went out into the public to see how readily the public was confused.

 

I didn’t have to go far to find confusion.I found a dog walker trying to find an address.

 

“Can I help you find something?” I asked her.”I’m confused,” the dog walker said.

 

“I thought 64th street would be right after 63rd street.”

 

“They put another street between the two,” I said, “just to confuse people like you.”

 

“Figures,” the dog walker said.

 

Clearly, the city was guilty of infringement on a person’s senses and well being.

 

I next went into a coffee shop that wasn’t one that I normally went into. But instead of having the normal choices of tall, grand and venti, this shop had single, double and triple.I could see that I wasn’t the only one confused.

 

I asked the person standing in line ahead of me, “Is a triple three times the size of a single, or is it the same size but with three shots of espresso in it?”

 

“Beats me,” the person said. “What I want to know is what these low-fat sticky buns have that could possibly make them low-fat.”

 

I wondered, with such confusion among members of the public, was this coffee shop infringing on either the other coffee shop’s terminology or were we, the public, just naturally confused about things.

 

I decided I needed to see someone really smart, so I went to see a professor who was in part responsible for the new atom smasher and the super collider to see if he was faring any better than the rest of us.

 

“Professor, can you clear up some confusion the public is having?” I asked.

 

“I’ll certainly try, but first I’m having difficulty understanding how some news channels can ignore facts when they report the news.”

 

“We all wonder that,” I told the Professor.

 

“But they simply report dogma, assume that their opinions are correct and arbitrarily reject anything to the contrary. Or worse, they simply state what they want to believe and sprinkle it with a few facts.”

 

The Professor was clearly confused. “Is that how we scientists should be doing our work? Reject any type of testing or experimentation or observation to develop our theories?”

 

I left the Professor in a highly agitated state of confusion. Clearly the news anchors were adding to the public’s confusion.

 

I found myself wandering inside the mental ward of the local hospital for some clarity.

 

“Are you confused?” I asked one of the patients.

 

“Not at all,” he replied. “I know who I am today and even if I think I’m someone else tomorrow, I still won’t have any doubt about it.”

 

“What if you think you’re me tomorrow?” I asked.

 

“I still won’t be confused,” the patient said. “What you feel is up to you. Like they say, I’m okay, You’re okay. Who cares if anyone moved the cheese.”

 

I left the mental ward feeling much better about things. Confusion is in the eye of the beholder. The infringer isn’t the one confused. He may cause confusion in others, but the infringer is actually quite happy with him or herself.

 

At least some of the public appeared not to be confused, even if they might only be the ones believing they are someone else.

 

If you have an intellectual property matter in Orange County, San Diego, in Riverside, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Riverside Trademark Lawyers, and Orange County and San Diego Trademark Attorneys. For this reason, be sure to hire a California law firm with trademark lawyers who are ready to serve you in many areas such as Chino Hills, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach and Palm Desert so you are properly represented when you need to be.

 

If you have an intellectual property matter and need to know your rights, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn about your rights and options. You can also call us to speak directly to Sebastian Gibson on the phone about your legal matter.

A San Diego and Palm Springs California Literary and Publishing Attorney Looks at the Harry Potter Case Ruling and Copyright Infringement Law

July 10th, 2009 at 06:39pm Under copyright infringement

If you are a writer, a publisher, a California copyright attorney, a literary agent or lawyer anywhere from Corona del Mar, Rancho Mirage, San Diego, California Orange County, CA, Los Angeles, Malibu, La Jolla, Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside, San Marcos, Vista and Escondido or the cities of Huntington Beach, Yorba Linda, San Clemente, Buena Park, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, and Laguna Hills, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, Temecula, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Springs, or Palm Desert, you will be interested in a recent case involving the Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling. This is an important decision for writers, copyright attorneys, and literary lawyers everywhere. 

In September 2008, a New York judge handed down a decision in favor of author J. K. Rowling and Warner Bros. who own the film rights in the Harry Potter books, in a literary and copyright law case involving a fan website that was planning on publishing a reference book on the Harry Potter saga.

What the ruling determined was that the reference book simply copied too much of the Rowling books to be considered fair use. The fact that what was copied was creative material as opposed to factual material, also hurt the website’s case as creative material enjoys a higher level of protection.

What the ruling does is to reiterate the rule that for a derivative book to enjoy the fair use protection under the law, it must be very transformative. It must create something else. Instead, the judge found that the reference book copied Rowling’s distinctive style and words in excess of what would otherwise be legitimate to create a reference guide.

The ruling does nothing to dilute the right of parody or literary criticism to be protected by the fair use doctrine. Rather, the ruling may elevate the importance of the “market impact” factor in the four part standard used by judges in evaluating fair use.

Those four factors are first, the purpose and character of the use (is the new work transformative into something different – in this case use of material from two companion reference books of Rowling made the website reference book less transformative). While another part of this factor is whether the use is commercial or noncommercial, most uses are for profit. Another part of this factor is whether the infringer acted in good faith or not.

The second factor is the amount and substantiality of the use, i.e. whether the amount of the use by the infringer is reasonable for the transformative purpose. Here, apparently, it was not.

The third factor is the nature of the copyrighted work, creative works being given much greater protection than factual works.

The fourth factor is the harm to the market of the original work by the infringing work. Here the court found that while the website reference book might not harm the market of the Harry Potter novels, it might very well harm the market of Rowling’s companion books.

Consequently, the New York judge issued a permanent injunction against publication of the website reference guide. The decision may be appealed and it is possible if the website reference book were edited, it might pass muster. But in this copyright lawyer’s opinion, the success of an appeal or an edited book to pass muster as being fair use is unlikely under these circumstances and as a result of this ruling infringers in California and the U.S. will now have an even harder time trying to make a profit off of another writer’s work.

If you have a publishing, literary, or copyright infringement law issue in San Diego, Newport Beach, Irvine, Orange County, La Jolla, in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Malibu Copyright Lawyer and your Palm Springs and San Diego Publishing Attorney. Be sure to hire a California law firm with literary and copyright infringement law experience who can serve areas such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Anaheim, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fullerton, Del Mar, San Diego, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, La Jolla, Oxnard, Ventura, La Quinta, and Santa Barbara so you are properly represented and get the compensation you deserve.

If you have a publishing or copyright law issue of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you.