Industry Expert

In episode 19 of Gordon Firemark's Entertainment Law podcast Eminem filed a lawsuit against his record label for breach of contract. In his lawsuit he states that he was not paid his full royalties for digital downloads. In his contract he has an agreement to receive 18% royalties for album sales and 50% royalties for digital download licensing. He suit claims that digital downloads are considered licensed material, whether it’s a song or a ring tone. The supreme court ruled in the favor of Universal Music Group that they were abiding by the stipulations of the contract and that digital downloads are not considered licensing but are considered as album sales. Rick James estate also followed suit and filed against Universal for the same breach of contract. The major difference between Rick James contract and Eminem is that his was created before 2000. Before then most contracts had a clause stipulating that you cannot contest royalty practices after 2 years. If any ruling is successful the artist could be owed 10’s of millions of dollars. Gordon states that you have to understand the wording in the contracts clearly or have it clarified, because of the way the words were manipulated in the contract Eminem did not have a successful case. Understanding each word or phrase is key to the success of your contract and plan to have a lawyer review every extent of my contract and have the other party clarify there terminology.

In Episode 21 the famous Mike Tyson face tattoo designer filed a lawsuit and a cease and desists against Warner Brothers for replicating his design of the tattoo in the “Hangover Part 2”. Firemark states that the liability is fairly clear but the author had not filed for copyright 90 days prior to the movie being released, which Warner Brothers may counter claim fair use because its being utilized in a parody. The issue at hand is that the tattoo is identical and not altered in anyway to be used as a joke. So in likelihood the case may never see light it may just end in a settlement. What one could learn in this case is that anything that has the ability to copyrighted should be for the success of your business.

In Episode 23 The Wizard of Oz film characters are still protected under copyright law after 100 years. Technically after the copyright ends they would fall into public domain but Warner Brothers says that can copyright certain characteristics about the characters that can not be used. Which is true that you can copyright the way something is designed and process is created. I think that this is very useful to implement into my business model to protect the process.