Monday, April 13, 2009

The Importance of Early Registration

I can't tell you how many times I see clients who forget to register their copyrights, or do not register their copyrights soon enough.  So, how soon must a work be registered? The quick answer is within three months of publication.  

The primary advantage to registering within three months of publication is eligibility for the statutory damages provisions under the Copyright Act.  For example, if someone willfully infringes on your registered (within three months of publication) copyright, you can receive up to $150,000 per violation! Even if someone unintentionally infringes, the statutory damages range from $750 to $30,000 per violation.  You also get attorney's fees under the statutory damages provision of the Copyright Act. See 17 U.S.C. Section 412. 

On the other hand, if you fail to register on time, you are not eligible for attorney's fees and must be able to prove the amount of your actual damages. 

The moral of the story: Register your copyrights as soon as possible!

Friday, April 3, 2009

The First Twitter Defamation Case

The first twitter defamation lawsuit has been filed, and it is against none other than Courtney Love.  The erratic rocker and Kurt Cobain widow apparently had some very unkind things to say about her former fashion designer.  You can find a story on the defamatory statements and the lawsuit here, and Courtney Love's official twitter page here. Finally, a copy of the complaint can be found here

After reading the complaint, it appears that one of Love's best arguments may be that her statements are so incoherent that a reasonable person could not understand what she is talking about - or, in other words, she is so incomprehensible that she is defamation-proof.  It should be interesting to see what happens. 

Thanks to Pete Jones for alerting me to the case.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Tony Castricone's Central Ohio Sports Blog

A local (and sometimes state/nationwide) celebrity - who happens to be my roommate - Tony Castricone, has started a sports blog for Central Ohio Sports fans.  Tony hosts pre-game shows for Ohio State Basketball and Football, occasionally co-hosts with Herbstreit, Spielman, and Hooley on The Big Show, and has his own show in the fall, The Sunday Brunch.  He is an expert a national expert on Big Ten football (and NCAA football in general). 

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Why Twitter Matters - And For Whom It Matters

While walking around in Austin, Texas at South By Southwest, the power of Twitter became obvious to me.  The number of social media websites is enough to make one's head spin.  But Twitter stands out from the pack, especially if you need to have instant updates on what a large number of people are doing. 

For those of you who are not regular tweeters, Twitter is a website that asks one question: What are you doing? Each person has a very brief profile and can choose to "follow" their friends or their favorite celebrities to receive instant updates.  In that way, Twitter is like an immediate newsletter that you choose to receive only from people who interest you.  Most people use twitter through a software application on their cell phones.  A tweet is limited to the same amount of characters as a cell phone text. 

At first, I thought that Twitter was another pointless technology for hipsters and high school kids. After all, Facebook has a status update function.  But Facebook has so many other features that take time to load on slower cell phones and get in the way of the very simple and distilled information that comes on Twitter. 

Still, Twitter is not necessary for most folks.  However, it is indispensable for anyone who either needs very fast information from a source on twitter or for anyone who wants to build and maintain followers (fans, blog readers, clients, voters, etc.).  Bands can use twitter to update fans on what they are doing and when they have upcoming shows. Politicians can tell their supporters about the latest fundraiser or rally. And businesses can alert customers to sales or Twitter code specials. 

At South By Southwest, I followed a Twitter schedule update.  With surprise performances, such as Metallica and Kanye West, Twitter was the only way to keep in the loop of what was going on. And EVERY person I met there was on Twitter.  In that way, by simply checking my phone, I had exclusive up to the second information about show changes and the latest news on where and when surprise performances would occur. 

If you are interested in maintaining fans, or just being in the know, you should strongly consider getting on Twitter. (Rhyme not intended, but I noticed it and kept it in anyway.) :)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

SXSW Observations, Tips, and Highlights

Now that I have had some time to process what happened over the last week in Austin, I'd like to supplement the other posts with more thorough descriptions.

General Observations:

The conference was pretty much what I expected it to be: extremely crowded, full of big names in the music industry, exhausting and exciting. There were a few surprises, however.

The conference is very indie-centric. There seems to be an attitude, especially among the fans attending the showcases, and among some of the music industry professionals, that the only legitimate music is indie rock music that is not currently on the radio or (preferably) will never be on the radio. I found this attitude a bit unwelcoming, since I am a fan of accessible singer/songwriters and pop-rock music. This phenomenon can be best summarized by a t-shirt that I saw on Sixth Street: "Oh yeah, the band that I like doesn't even exist yet." (Having said that, there were a few excellent singer/songwriters, particularly at the BMI Showcase and the Hotel Cafe Showcase.)

I was also surprised that there were so many concerts and showcases during the day. Most of these parties allowed people with badges to receive free food and drinks. I only attended one party (to see an Ohio band that I know), but most people seem to split their time between the parties and the panels.

TIPS:

1) Bring very comfortable shoes to SXSW! The venues are spread over approximately 1.5 miles. I expected to do a lot of walking, but not nearly as much as I actually did.

2) Stay downtown if you can. I stayed with a friend's mom in Central Austin and took the bus in to town every morning. The Austin bus system is reliable and safe. However, the busses do not run very late at night. Many of my fellow conference-goers attended the panels during the day and went to dinner until about 7:00. Then, went back to their hotels and rested until about 10:00, when they would go out to see showcases until 2 A.M. I did not have the luxury of resting because I would not be able to get back downtown in time by taking the bus. This forced me to be downtown from 11 A.M until 2:30 A.M. on most nights. Also, catching a cab after the showcases end can take up to an hour. Downtown hotels are costly, but are worth it if you can afford them.

3) Prioritize your reasons for attending the conference. During the day, this is a big issue. There will certainly be times when there are conflicting panels and parties that you would like to attend. Decide what the purpose of your trip to SXSW is before you arrive. This was especially problematic for me because I had multiple goals (learning, networking, seeing new bands, seeing bands that I already like, etc.) I am happy with the way that I balanced my time, but I didn't realize how much of an issue it would be.

4) Join twitter and follow SXSW Sched. The schedules change all the time during SXSW. There are also surprise guests. For example, this year Kanye West and Metallica both played unannounced! However, SXSW Sched will provide you with updated artist listings and, potentially, with gossip about added surprise shows.

5) Bring a lot of business cards.

6) Play in the softball tournament, or at least attend it. This will give a chance to meet people whom you otherwise would not have met and to bond in a way that can only be done through sports. Also, there is free beer and bbq.

HIGHLIGHTS:

I like to rank things. (High Fidelity is one of my top five favorite movies. (The people at SXSW would say "film".)) Accordingly, here are my 2009 SXSW top fives:

Conference Panels:

5) The Risks And Rewards of Festivals. The creators of Bonnaroo and a number of European festivals spoke about details for festival planning. Most festivals take three years to make a profit! That was shocking news, but is good to know. Also, Bonnaroo does not spend a dime promoting the festival. Instead, they book bands with loyal followings and rely on word of mouth. This is a very smart business model. It is no surprise that Bonnaroo is so successful.

4) Music Licensing For Unsigned Artists. The moral of this story, as told by the music supervisors for film and television, is that, other than having an appropriate song, all that matters is knowing the right person. Ultimately, you most likely must go through a song plugger (or similar service) or have a stroke of luck to get a placement. Those are the only options for an unsigned artist.

3) Demo Listening (with A&R). This was a golden ticket opportunity! A&R people (I've heard them called A&R "people" or "reps". I use both terms interchangeably.) from two major labels, along with music critics, selected demo cds from a box, played the first verse and chorus of one song on each selected cd (for the entire room), and gave their thoughts on the music. This provided a unique situation to see how high the bar is to be signed to a major record label. I heard 25 songs or so. Out of those, according to the panel, 10 were terrible, 12 were average, but not good enough, and 3 were excellent and "worthy of listening to the entire track." Those artists who the A&R reps liked were asked to follow up with the A&R reps after the panel - a rare and amazing opportunity! Listening with objective ears, I agreed with the A&R people. I left the panel comforted with the knowledge that I have similar taste as the A&R people.

2) A&R 3.0. An A&R person from every major label answered questions from artists about the mindset of an A&R representative. While they did not accept any records after the panel, the A&R reps did provide helpful information about where the music industry is headed. Hint: It has to do with computers.

1) Issues facing major label attorneys. This panel featured general counsel from Interscope and Sony, along with a major artist attorney. It was fascinating to hear the issues that the big labels are concerned about. Perhaps even more interesting were the ones that they did not talk about (copyright termination).


Artist Performances:

5) Meiko. She had great songs, very funny banter, and an excellent performance. My favorite was "Reasons To Love You."

4) Alice Russell. This neo-soul singer from the U.K. sounds like a mix of Duffy and Amy Winehouse. The songs were not always great, but the backing band was outstanding, particularly the offensive lineman sized violinist. Having a violin in a british soul band with organ doesn't seem like a good idea. But it is for them.

3) Brother Trouble. These guys were like Big & Rich, except they are actual brothers. Their harmonies were tight and the songs were catchy. I expect to hear them on country radio sometime soon.

2) Five Times August. I caught the end of their set at the Driscoll. Brad and the and, particularly the cellist, were a step above almost every other comparable act at SXSW. If you have not heard of the band yet, trust me, you will.

1) Ten out of Tenn. The performance was great. But the concept is even cooler. This is a group of 10 songwriter friends from Nashville who rotate singing their own songs and playing an instrument in the other songwriters' back up band. Seeing Erin McCarley, Griffin House, Jeremy Lister, Katie Herzig, and Andy Davis on the same stage was all that I thought it would be - indescribably good!

Experiences (ranked in order of memorability):

5) Watching Third Eye Blind Play Their New Record. I made some nice "single serving friends" before the show who were fans from the 3eb message board. I have always been a Third Eye Blind fan and have all of their records. This is why I was shocked at how bad the lyrics are to every new song. But, the music still sounded great and we were about 20 feet away on a 68 degree cloudless night in Texas.

4) Walking down Sixth Street on Saturday Night. Chaos! Crowded streets with guys in very tight jeans with ironic hipster mustaches. Standing in the middle of the Sixth and Trinity intersection, I could hear about 10 different venues melding into one awful noise. It was pretty cool.

3) Interviewing Griffin House. As I will explain in the future, I am working on a music industry book. Griffin graciously agreed to be my first interviewee. He went out of his way to make time for me and was truly a class act and all-around good guy (even though he went to Miami (Oh)) (Go Bobcats!).

2) Watching Rocco DeLuca perform from 30 feet away while standing next to Matthew McConaughey. (Speaks for itself.)

1) Sitting next to Leonard Cohen during the Webb Sisters set (though I did not realize it until the next day). I sat next to an older gentleman and made some small talk. During our chat, someone came up to him and said that they admire all of his work and thanked him. I assumed he was some sort of British producer or something. I had no idea he was one of the most prolific songwriters of our time (and behind one of my favorite Matt Mackey cover songs).

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Day 4 SXSW

Yesterday was the second day of the Continuing Legal Education. The panels were on music litigation decisions and issues facing major label lawyers, among other topics.

There are high hopes among the record label attorneys that Congress and the Obama administration will pass the performance rights act, which would compensate the owners of master sound recordings for performances on terrestrial radio (and broadcast television) for the first time. Currently, the U.S. is among North Korea and Iran as countries that do not compensate the owners of sound recordings for public performances on terrestrial radio. Since the U.S. does not pay such royalties, U.S. artists are unable to collect their own royalties in other countries (aka reciprocity). If this act passes, it will be a serious boost to the music industry.

I was interested to hear that the major label attorneys did not really have a take on the impending 2013 termination of copyright issue (I will post a detailed blog about it at some point in the future.). All of the attorneys whom I asked either said that they are not thinking about it or that it is a problem and they just don't want to draw attention to it. This leads me to believe that the issues is pretty serious after all. (The basics are that in 2013, recording artists who assigned their sound recordings "masters" to record labels in 1978 will be able to terminate the assignment and get their masters back, allowing the artist to profit from the master instead of the record label.)

I saw a little bit of music and comedy last night too. I checked out a few bands at the Park the Van showcase, a label founded by the team behind all of the Sublime records. The Peakers were very good. They sounded like Rilo Kiley with more instruments. The best band of the day for me was Parachute, from Charlottesville, VA. I have a feeling we may hear from them again. Finally, I saw Third Eye Blind play new material. It is surprising how bad Stephan Jenkins' lyrics have become.

Today is the softball tournament and BBQ.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Sxsw day 3 summary

Today was the start of lawyer education classes. After attending two very informative panels, I visited 2 day showcases. More details ok that are forthcoming.

Artists whom I heard:
Dave Ritz, Brother Trouble, Ben Harper, Waz, Erin McCarley, Five Times August, Rocco DeLuca.



-- Post From My iPhone