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Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I started plotting some new big, hairy audacious goals for 2013. My opinion on big, hairy audacious goals is you haven’t set them right if they don’t both terrify you and excite you at the same time. For that reason, I have a note on my wall next to them that [...]
Are you ready to take your art to the next level by licensing your work? Well then, join me at Makeshift Society to talk about licensing agreements. We’ll break down licensing lingo, deconstruct contract clauses so you understand what the legalese means, and get tips on when the deal might not be in your best [...]
One commonly asked question is: “Can I copyright my name/business name?” The quick answer is no. Copyright law protects the expression of ideas (e.g. books, songs, photographs or films) not the ideas themselves. As such, the U.S. Copyright Office identifies names, titles, slogans, or short phrases as unprotected under U.S. copyright law. Really, what you [...]
Visual artists are you tired of seeing your work used on Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, or other websites without your permission? This Thursday, October 25 at 6 pm Pacific, I’ll be hosting a free teleseminar on how to protect your work online. We’ll discuss some of the tools available both to monitor the use of your work [...]
Photographers, please join me this Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at Fort Mason Center where I’ll be teaching a workshop hosted by California Lawyers for the Arts. The workshop is designed for photographers tired of seeing their work used on Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, or other websites without their permission. And will help teach them not only [...]
Recently, Mike Tyson’s tattoo ended up in court. Tyson’s tattoo artist, Victor Whitmill, filed suit against Warner Brothers for copyright infringement. As a quick background, the lawsuit was filed over Ed Helms’ character in The Hangover: Part II wakes up after one drink too many with a face tattoo resembling Tyson’s. However, interestingly, while Tyson also [...]
At some point during my first legal internship at California Lawyers for the Arts, I realized that I was going to start my own firm. To help me move toward that goal, I sought out internships with solo attorneys and small firms. I knew that there I could start to learn not only how to [...]
Many artists know that they should be licensing their work. But the contracts and terminology that go along with licensing can be intimidating. Today, we’ll break down some of the common licensing lingo so that you can confidently negotiate your next deal (or at least know what the heck everyone is talking about). Licensing vs. [...]
Attorneys often get a bad rap because creative people think that they get in the middle of a deal and kill it. Occasionally attorneys deserve that bad rap. But often the attorney is killing the deal for a reason that is in the best interest of their client. So when might killing a contract make [...]
I recently completed a photography collaboration with another photographer. While we each took photographs, the final image was a result of weaving together our two individual photographs. Joint Work When two or more individuals create a work with the intent that each of their contributions will result in a single, inseparable work, it is called [...]
