In November 2007, Loyola University, New Orleans hosted a series of workshops and discussions by NARAS (The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) on how to survive and build a career in today’s music industry. In this session, entertainment lawyer Ken Abdo moderates a panel about record deals in the digital age. Panelists Robin Mitchell Joyce Suzette Becker, Tanya Butler and Erin Frankenheimer discuss: what it takes to get signed in today’s music industry, what labels look for in artists they consider, how to make yourself attractive to a label, what a good managers should to do on behalf of his or her artist to develop their career, what a management contract should look like, and – most of all – what rights artists are now entitled to in the United States and to know what you’re entitled to and what you can bargain for when sitting down with a label to negotiate your recording contract.
Kendall Minter gives a comprehensive overview of what an entertainment lawyer does, what kinds of individuals need one, and how recent changes in the music industry have impacted the legal profession.
In this panel held at the 2008 meeting of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Sports & Entertainment Law, panelists Ken Abdo, Ann Chaitovitz, Jay Cooper, Mark Goldstein and David Nimmer discuss what they expect will happen as copyright ownership on music recorded since 1978 begins to revert from the labels that released the recordings to the authors of the music, and all the difficulties that will arise from this transition – for example, ongoing attempts by the RIAA to add music to the list of nine specific types of work for hire, the question of who exactly is the “author” of a sound recording, and how future evolutions in content delivery are likely to affect copyright and royalty regulations.
In this plenary panel discussion presented at a 2008 meeting of the American Bar Association, panelists Lon Sobel, Ken Abdo, Jay Cooper, David Given, Joel Katz, David Knochemsen, Ed Pearson and Mike Rudell discuss how the practice of entertainment law has evolved over the last half-century, from a few lonely practitioners doing an ill-defined set of tasks to a large and sprawling body of jurisprudence, legal theory, and competing orthodoxies.
In this segment of a panel held at the 2008 meeting of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Sports & Entertainment Law, the panelists examine the legal underpinnings of the current music copyright landscape, including the coming cascade of music copyright reversions from labels to artists, songwriters and producers, the debates over work-for-hire statutes (and whether recorded music may be considered work-for hire), as well as various revisions to US copyright law – including an attempt in 1999 by the RIAA to insert language in a copyright revision bill adding sound recordings to the list of nine specific types of creation which may be considered work for hire.
In this segment of a plenary session of the American Bar Assocation’s 2008 Entertainment & Sports Forum, focusing on the past, present and future of entertainment law, the panelists discuss how the industry worked when they first began their careers - whether the work has become more or less specialized over time, what they did with their day, how they attracted clients, how big entertainment firms were then, how to help clients today navigate thorny issues of rights, how to help them cross-collateralize their work, and, most of all, what “entertainment law” as a concept even means today.
In this segment of a panel held at the 2008 meeting of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Sports & Entertainment Law, the panelists discuss the slippage present in the term “author” as applies to the agent of record behind the creation of a sound recording, in the context of Federal copyright law.
In this segment of a plenary session of the American Bar Assocation’s 2008 Entertainment & Sports Forum, focusing on the past, present and future of entertainment law, the panelists discuss what entertainment lawyers need to understand about today’s business, and whether business knowledge has become more important than knowledge of the law. They also offer advice to anyone who wishes to become an entertainment lawyer – especially how dangerous and difficult some statutes can be to interpret, and what the penalties are for not doing your homework when making deals and performing due diligence.
In this segment of a panel held at the 2008 meeting of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Sports & Entertainment Law, the panelists continue their discussion of the slippage present in the term “author” as applies to the agent of record behind the creation of a sound recording, in the context of Federal copyright law – e.g., is the “author” the frontman, the band, the songwriter, the engineer, the producer, the backup musicians, or all of the above – and what happens when ownership of the copyright of a sound recording reverts to the author… whoever that is.
In this segment of a plenary session of the American Bar Assocation’s 2008 Entertainment & Sports Forum, focusing on the past, present and future of entertainment law, the panelists explain how the legal underpinnings of the entertainment industry are likely to evolve over the coming years, and how this relates to cultural and technological changes in how music, film, television and other media are distributed and consumed.
