Contracts can be tough to read and even tougher to understand, even for trained practitioners.
Here is a recent article on Lexology.com that offers common sense advice for fixing contracts. If you can’t stand contracts you can’t understand, let’s work together to provide your business with clear, short, and enforceable agreements.
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You’ve finally decided now is the time to pursue your dream of being your own boss. You have the idea for the next big thing. And you are confident that your new business will be successful, but you do not know how to put your plan into action. This post discusses some of the things that you can do to help improve your chances of success.
Step 1: Work with legal counsel
Lawyers do more...Read More
Imagine you and your friend have a great idea for the next billion-dollar blockbuster. You might have some of the key plot points and your friend may be an expert at character development and dialogue. You start thinking about putting your ideas on paper in the hopes of writing the next Hollywood blockbuster.
Ideally, you and your partner will write the movie that makes you successful...Read More
The way that we make music has changed a great deal over the past five years. In the past, musicians would have to book expensive studio time to record a song and eventually release a record. Now, bands and artists can use apps such as GarageBand, Adobe Audition, or Pro Tools to record tracks and distribute new music.
Many of these apps offer extensive sample libraries, such as guitar riffs,...Read More
In almost any creative profession, timing is everything. When you have created a new work of art, are ready to release a new album or have a screenplay that you wish to sell to interested parties, you have to act fast. If someone else beats you to the marketplace, you may have spent a lot of time, money and energy on something that is yesterday’s next big thing.
Many artists, singers,...Read More
A recent article in The Atlantic addresses a scenario that is becoming more and more common for artists: Someone makes a remix of another’s art. As described in the article, an urban planner created — and signed — a mural using an artist’s online digital drawing of Michelle Obama as an Egyptian Queen. The original artist learned about it via word-of-mouth after the mural’s installation....Read More
In 2011, on the small Indonesian island of Sulawesi, a monkey named Naruto stole a photographer’s camera and took hundreds of selfies. Some of those selfies were worthy of publication. The British photographer, David Slater, published and sold copies of the image in a book. Now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit must decide whether Slater’s actions infringed Naruto’s copyrights....Read More
Millions of people share their life stories through blogs, social media updates and/or YouTube videos. Little do they know that creative minds are watching and reading their material, looking for ideas for the next story or screenplay. After all, characters are rarely created out of thin air.
But to what extent is someone’s life story protected? What should you be concerned about when you...Read More
As a screenwriter, you have probably heard stories of content and idea theft. Perhaps you have even experienced it firsthand. Protecting your script is important, but how many hoops do you really need to jump through to ensure your work is legally yours? Is registering with the Writers Guild of America-West (WGAW) necessary? How does it compare to copyright protection?
What is the WGAW...Read More
