Industry Liabilities

In the entertainment industry there are many liabilities that have to be taken in to account. Some of those liabilities include intellectual property infringement, contract issues, employment law risks and much more.  In the first video provided below discusses copyrights extensively. There were some very interesting points made during the video that I was not aware of and that are very important for people in my industry to know. One thing that I had no clue of was that there is a 3-year statute of limitation on copyright infringement suits.  Another thing I found interesting is that you could reverse titles for works that have not been completed yet. The movie “The Butler” had to change their name to “Lee Daniel’s, The Butler”. Check out entertainment law update for podcast. 

Another issue that is common in the entertainment industry is employment law risks. Interns are always something that companies need to have a full understanding what is covered under the internship umbrella.  There are 2 main types of internships in the U.S.A. . The first on is, “Work experience internship: Most often this will be in the second or third year of the school period. The placement can be from 2 months to one full school year. During this period, the student is expected to use the things he/she has learned in school and put them into practice. This way the student gains work experience in their field of study. The gained experience will be helpful to finish the final year of study (Wiki, 2013).” The second one is, “Research internship (graduation) or dissertation internship: This is mostly done by students who are in their final year. With this kind of internship a student does research for a particular company. The company can have something that they feel like they need to improve, or the student can choose a topic within the company themselves. The results of the research study will be put in a report and often will have to be presented (Wiki, 2013).”  The questions that arrive from internships situations is when is it no longer an internship, how many hours can be works, what kind of jobs should be paid for and things of that nature which the podcast below discusses. 

The last things I want to touch on today that is one of the most important things in any industry are contract issues. Contracts are legal documents that protect the deal made and the terms between two people or entities. In the video the speaker gives a great example of what can happen if you do not have your paperwork together. He had a client that wrote on a multi platinum selling song only to receive no royalties because he gave the music without receiving a contract first. I had to learn the hard way when starting off in the business that you cannot work off of someone’s word, not even family. 

I hope you all like the videos provided and learn something from them, I sure did. Thank you all for reading see ya next blog.