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Screenwriter Attorney

Living in Los Angeles, most of the screenwriters are here seeking to make it big in Hollywood.  We all want our screen plays and scripts to get picked up.  Many screenwriters come to Los Angeles without understanding and knowing their legal rights when it comes to the scripts, books, and other works of art.

Many assume that joining the Writers Guild of America will be enough to protect their intellectual property rights and the contents that they write for television shows, movies, news programs, animation, and documentaries but that is not the case.  When it comes time to negotiating your deals with the studios, directors and producers for your engagement, you need to make sure that you get the best terms possible and not lose your rights for future work and technologies.

This is why it is important to work with a screenwriter attorney who is familiar with representing an author and screenwriter with an emphasis on protecting your characters, plots, stories and theme that can someday become blockbuster hits.

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Sound Recording Artists Copyright Rights

Under the Fair Play Fair Pay Act of 2015, sound recording artists may receive some new rights under copyright laws if the Act goes into effect, according to Los Angeles Entertainment lawyer, Roger H. Behle.  Among the many changes that the Act proposes, recording artists and record labels could get compensated every time their music is played over the radio.

Currently, radio stations have been exempted from paying recording artists and record labels.  Only songwriters and publishers in the Entertainment industry have been paid due to certain distinctions within the US Copyright Act.  The US Copyright Act states, the owners of sound recording are not entitled to royalties for “non-digital” performances of their music over the air.  The proposed legislation would remove the word “digital” from the statue and require radio stations to pay royalties for airing a performers music.

There is a debate over whether this is beneficial or not to new artists trying to get exposure.  You can read more about Roger N. Behle, Jr, a Los Angeles music attorney’s article on the Act by clicking here

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Protecting Social Media Rights

With the popularity of social media, many businesses, companies and intellectual property right owners are starting to see their logos and trademark used on social media platforms including social forums.

As a copyright, trademark, and intellectual property right owner, you might not want to allow people to freely use pictures of your products for example without your permission.  You might also find someone buying your trademark as keywords in Google & Bing adword search.  In some cases, the party buying your keywords can be liable but not the platforms that sell your the keywords.

As the law evolves, it also gets more complicated because the Marketing department is always looking to ways to advertise your products and in some cases could be violating yours or other peoples rights if they don’t consult any attorney.

As social media gets more popular, its always a good idea to talk to a Entertainment law attorney to create guidelines for how your company will treat and enforce its rights and avoid conflicts with your competitors.

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Media And Entertainment Law

Media and entertainment law is area of law that you are going to need to become very familiar with if you are going to be in the entertainment industry.  It doesn’t matter if you are going to be a member of the Writers Guild or SAG/AFRA you are going to need to have an attorney or a law firm that specializes in entertainment law to have your back.

Media & entertainment law is not like regular contract law.  There are many different aspects to it that make it different.  All the Guilds have their own collective bargaining agreements that your lawyer needs to be familiar with.

Besides the performer agreements that you need to stay on top of there are the intellectual property rights and marketing rights that you need to pay attention to.  Your failure to negotiate or consider these matters can cost you a lot of money so its very important to find a law firm that can take care of your media, intellectual property, and entertainment law rights.