Entertainment Law and Legal Definition
Entertainment law encompasses legal areas such as copyright, trademark, contract, multimedia law, intellectual property, and book publishing. Related areas of law include first amendment law, telecommunications law, sports law, and all areas of intellectual property law. The personal service agreement is a primary legal instrument in the entertainment industry. This agreement is negotiated between an artist and a company that manufactures, promotes, and distributes the artist's goods or services. The agreement often binds the artist to produce for one company for a certain period of time. Personal service agreements are often governed by statutes, and are often the subject of litigation because they restrict the rights of artists to perform or create for any entity except the company with whom they have contracted.
U.S. copyright law contains provisions specifically directed at the entertainment industry. For example, the songwriter - or the copyright holder, if the songwriter has transferred the song's copyright or created the song as a work for hire - decides who can first record a song for publication. However, once the song has been recorded and published, the copyright holder may no longer limit who may record the song. If a song's copyright owner has previously granted permission to someone to record a song or if the songwriter has recorded and commercially released a recording of the song, the copyright holder is required by copyright law to grant a license to anyone else who wants to record that song. This is called a compulsory license. A licensee who records a song under a compulsory license is required to follow strict statutory guidelines for notification of its use and reporting sales and royalties to the copyright holder. The fee for a compulsory license is set by Congress at a few cents per recording manufactured, and is adjusted for inflation every few years.
The advance of technology and digital publishing has expanded traditional entertainment legal issues. For example, the value of digital downloading rights, and how this will become an increasingly important point in recording contracts.
Legal Definition list
Related Legal Terms
- Above the Line Costs (Entertainment Law)
- Ancillary Right (Entertainment Law)
- Answer Print ( Entertainment Law)
- Aspect Ratio ( Entertainment Law)
- Auteur( Entertainment Law)
- Blind Bidding (Entertainment)
- Box Office (Entertainment law)
- Call Sheet (Entertainment Law)
- Censorship (Entertainment Law)
- Completion Bond (Entertainment Law)