South Florida
If you’re looking for legal help in the entertainment world, LawyerConnection is the right place. Our South Florida entertainment law attorneys can assist you with everything from music, film, sports, publishing, and more. We’ll help you navigate the legal complexities of the entertainment industry, so you can focus on what you do best. If you have any questions or concerns about entertainment law, we are more than happy to provide reliable guidance and support. To schedule a confidential initial consultation with an experienced South Florida entertainment lawyer, feel free to contact us.
What is Entertainment Law?
Entertainment law is a broad area of law that focuses on the entertainment industry. This includes music, television, and film, as well as sports. There is significant overlap between entertainment and other legal fields, such as intellectual property, contract, business, and employment law. We provide entertainment law representation that is comprehensive in scope. Our attorneys in South Florida assist clients with a variety of legal matters related to the entertainment industry, including:
- Music Law
- Television and Film Law
- Sports Law
- Social Media
- Publishing
How to choose a Personal
Entertainment Lawyer
Entertainment law is complicated. At LawyerConnection, our legal team is committed to helping businesses and professionals understand the law. We are ready to get started working on your case right away. There’s a lot of work to be done if you want to win your case. First, conduct a comprehensive review and evaluation of your case. Next, gather and prepare all the relevant documents and paperwork. And finally, take all the appropriate action to help you achieve the best possible outcome.
Finding the right Entertainment
Lawyer in South Florida
Entertainment law is a complex and ever-changing field. If you are an artist, producer, or entertainer seeking legal representation in South Florida, you need to have a good lawyer who understands the business and can protect your interests. When looking for a lawyer, it is important to find someone who has experience in the entertainment industry. When choosing an entertainment lawyer, be sure to ask about their experience and expertise in the following areas:
- Contract negotiation
- Intellectual property law (copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets)
- Right of publicity and privacy
- First Amendment law
- Labor and employment law
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Copyright is a bundle of transferable rights that exist in an original creation. These rights are reserved exclusively to the owner and include the right to reproduce (copy), publish, perform, communicate and adapt. It is important to note that in order to receive the benefit of copyright protection, the works must be ‘substantial’ and unless your work is considered a “subject matter other than work”, it must also be ‘original’. Ideas and single words or titles are often not substantial or original enough to warrant copyright protection. Rather, it is the material expression of the idea which will be protected by copyright.
Fair use is a provision of the Copyright Act that allows certain uses of copyrighted works, such as making and distributing copies of protected material, without permission. Fair use is a provision of the Copyright Act that allows certain uses of copyrighted works, such as making and distributing copies of protected material, without permission. In recent years, fair use has been a valuable way to accommodate innovative new uses that involve technology, such as the VCR, internet search engines, reverse engineering of software, and the like.
No. Fair use is only available in situations where authors/artists do not have a legitimate claim to demand permission or payment. Fair use will allow people to use your work to illustrate a larger trend or idea, to comment on or interpret your work, to teach students about your work and how it fits into the history of the field, or to make a new work that adds value to and is different from yours. It will not let them sell copies of your work without permission, or make any other use that displaces a market you should be able to exploit.
Someone is using my copyrighted work but they have only copied 5% of it. Is there anything I can do?
Possibly. Copyright infringement is subject to a qualitative test, and not a quantitative test. Therefore, in order to determine whether your copyright has been infringed, you should consider whether a substantial part of your work has been copied. A part will be substantial if it forms a crucial or essential part of the work.
Entertainment Law is a combined sub-set of legal concepts drawn from contract, intellectual property, corporate and business organizations laws, which a lawyer applies to transactions geared towards advising and assisting clients in the motion picture, television, home entertainment, record, music publishing, live appearance, personal management, talent agency, emerging media technology, merchandising, endorsement and commercial tie-in businesses.
An entertainment lawyer provides advice to clients concerning entertainment related transactions. The entertainment lawyer will typically prepare written agreements and/or other documents designed to protect rights (including contractual entitlements) and occasionally instituting proceedings such as lawsuits, arbitrations and mediations which may be required to enforce such rights.
Musical performers’ rights generally concern their audio and/or video recorded performances, musical compositions in which an artist may have interests as a composer/lyricist and/or a publisher as well as related merchandising rights.
Royalties available in the music industry include mechanical, reproduction, performance, and synchronization royalties. Mechanical royalties cover reproduction and distribution of music. Reproduction royalties cover selling or streaming sound recordings, and performance royalties cover live performances of music, streaming it online, or broadcasting it on radio. Synchronization royalties cover combinations of music with images in films, TV shows, commercials, video games, and similar visual works.
Yes, even if you are not famous, you generally have a right to control the use of your image. A business cannot use your name, likeness, or other aspects of your identity for commercial purposes without your consent. If a business violates this right, you may be able to seek monetary damages and an injunction through a misappropriation claim.
The film production services agreement will determine the extent of control that a producer holds over a film. The producer may arrange to choose the director, lead actors, and other important people in the production, and substantial changes to the script may require their approval. A producer also will set the budget for the film and provide deadlines for certain stages of the project. They will hold the copyright in any work that is eventually created.
An actor’s rights may in part be protected by virtue of his or her membership in SAG/AFTRA but an actor’s sources of rights and revenues are infinitely varied and so many interests are expressed and protected by the agreements they sign. Such agreements can be highly complex and the manner in which rights are expressed or limited and terms are defined is the key to maximizing both protection and results.
What to expect when working with an Entertainment Lawyer in South Florida
Entertainment lawyers work with people in the entertainment industry. This includes actors, writers, directors, and producers. They may also work with people in the music industry or the sports industry. When you are working with an entertainment lawyer in South Florida, there are some things you can expect. First and foremost, your lawyer should be well-versed in the law as it applies to the entertainment industry. This will include contract law, trademark law, copyright law, and more.
In addition, your lawyer should be experienced in negotiations and able to help you get the best deals for your work. They should also be able to protect you from any legal problems that may arise during the course of your career. If you are looking for representation in the entertainment industry, make sure to check out LawyerConnection.