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Lawyer & Law Firm Network News
Today's we feature an exciting and very informative roundtable with two of entertainment's smartest and most experienced "Intellectual Property" lawyers, Deborah Wagnon, President of Portia Entertainment, and Mark Lee, Partner, Manatt Phelps Phillips, who along with Gail Knight Steinbeck, President of The Palladin Group and Chairperson of The Creative Property Rights Alliance discussing:
What are some of the big issues you face in protecting the work of Thomas Steinbeck and the estate of John Steinbeck, famed author of Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and others? Why does it need policing?
What is the creative community doing about these problems, if anything? Is it just every man for himself or is there an organization to help?
So what is this "right of publicity?" Is it a state law or federal law? Does it apply to anybody who's famous? Author, singer, actress, etc?
What happens to these rights that supposedly protect a creative person, like copyright, right of publicity, etc. ? when they die? What rights survive his or her death?
How is it different from a defamation claim, for example, like these lawsuits by famous people against magazines, etc. Are they suing them for both defamation and on this right of publicity? What's the difference?
How is the right of publicity used in a practical sense by artists to protect their work up front - Is it included in their agreements with book publishers, record labels, etc?
What about this "name and likeness" protection is this just visual? What about someone's using your voice or doing a sound-alike of your voice?
Who actually owns the copyright in book deals, the author or the publisher? Is it different for the music industry ? don't the record labels usually own the copyright to the record? What about songwriters?
How does an author get paid specifically? Is it royalties that stay the same forever, checks keep on coming to the heirs? Any different for recording artists or songwriters?
When a piece of creative work goes into the public domain, whether a book, a movie, etc, what happens to the right of publicity? Can the author or actress or their heirs still make a claim against third parties for infringing on those rights?
How is all of this affected by the internet and the growth in use of content on wireless,etc? Isn't that going to make it a lot harder to police these rights?
What are the special international problems an author faces? Is it different or worse than within the U.S.?
Does trademark play any role in all of this? What can an author actually trademark? Is it different in the record business or film business, for example?
What general advice would you give a new author to protect their work?
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