Copyright Definition

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

December 16th, 2008

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.

How Do You Copyright Stuff?

December 15th, 2008

To actually Copyright your ‘IP’ - your ‘Intellectual Property’, whether a song, a poem, lyrics, a story or article - is really, really simple. You write it down on a sheet of paper. At the bottom of the paper, you write the words ‘Copyright by…’ Then, where the three dots are - ‘…’ - you write your name, followed by the year. And that’s it - Copyrighted.

But there’s a problem…

Copyrighting a song, lyric, story or whatever is one thing: actually proving that YOU actually copyrighted the material is another. Or in other words, proving that the material is YOURS.

Now, bear with me for just a sec here… I’m no lawyer. But one of the big advantages of the Internet is that it makes it pretty easy to educate yourself about a lot of different stuff, like the Law on Copyright. For example, I copyrighted a song a few years back. It was a Country Rock song, and I submitted it to (go figure!) a Country Rock label in the USA.

Very often, songwriters hear nothing more, and that’s what happened to my song. I heard nothing back. Then, by pure chance, I heard a Rap tune on the radio. I’m not a Rap fan, but somehow, part of the lyric sounded familiar: why? Because it was the Chorus from my Country Rock song!

I found out who the artist was, even contacted the record company, (which was in Finland!) and to cut a long story short, I received nothing but the runaround. My ‘IP’ had been ripped off. But the plain fact is - it was my own fault. I had no ‘official’ copyright; I was living in the UK and there’s no Copyright Registration Service available; the US Copyright Service was too expensive for me (at $45 per song) and the problem was that I just could not PROVE that I’d written the song when I said I did.

Of course, if it had been a Big, International Nº1, I would’ve done something more about it - but even then, actually proving that the song was mine would’ve been expensive and with no guarantee of success.

The bottom line is this: if you want to Copyright something you’ve created, all you need to do is to say it’s ‘Copyright by…’ (you) and the date. Write it on the paper or label a CD or Computer File the same way.

BUT… if there’s a chance of making money from your work, or if there’s a chance that somebody might find your material interesting enough to rip you off, you need to do more than just ‘label’ it.

You can use the US Copyright Service, you can use what’s commonly called ‘Poor Man’s Copyright’ and nowadays, there’s a third way too - the Internet.

The huge increase in Copyright Theft means that there are various ways to Copyright your Intellectual Property On-line these days, and savvy Internet users are beginning to see the advantages of Copyrighting On-line.

Whichever method you use, make sure that anything you value is Copyrighted - especially if you submit your work using the ‘net.

And by the way - the universally-recognized Copyright Sign, the little ‘c’ encircled by an ‘O’ - © - means nothing any more despite what you might have read!

Norman MacLeod, originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a writer, author and musician living and working in Spain. In 2008 he founded intelLoc, an online Copyrighting Service for Songwriters, Authors, Designers, Artists, Bloggers etc. after having had some copyright material stolen by a US-based record label. intelLoc allows creative people to copyright their material online as they actually create it for a small fee. More details at http://www.intelloc.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Norman_MacLeod

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

December 14th, 2008