Lawsuits in the entertainment industry are a big part of
this industry. Individuals as well as companies get sued for all sorts of
things including royalties and compensation, performance rights, and contractual
disputes just to name a few. It is really not enough to only be good at
entertaining, but it is also equally important to understand the business of
entertainment. Along with understanding the business, you should also know some
of the laws associated with the doing business in the entertainment industry.
Let’s take a look at a few recent legal controversies and explore some of the
lawsuits that take place in the entertainment industry.
The first controversial lawsuit I would like to look at is a
lawsuit filed by Marvin Gaye’s family against a company owned by Sony over a
Grammy nominated song performed by Robin Thicke. Marvin Gaye was is considered an R&B
legend from the ‘70s and ‘80’s and his career was cut short when he was killed
by his father in 1984. Robin Thicke is a current R&B star that is a
singer-songwriter, musician, and actor. He is also the son of Alan Thicke who
played on the hit TV show Growing Pains.
Robin Thicke and his collaborators T.I. and Pharrell Williams produced a song
called, “Blurred Lines”. The Gaye Family
claims that this song copied elements from Marvin Gaye’s original song, “Got To
Give It Up”. This was a case dealing with copyright infringement. The two
parties were recently able to settle the dispute and the terms of the
settlement were confidential. During this controversial lawsuit I was speaking
with a friend of mine who is also a producer and he suggested that the Robin
Thicke song did not sound like it was copied to him. Whether or not the song
was actually copied or not, the main thing to be aware that cases like these
arise often in the music industry. Whenever possible it doesn’t hurt to get the
proper permission to avoid having to be sued over it latter. It’s also important
to understand what could happen if you produce a song that is significantly
successful and that song closely resembles another popular song. Robins
Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines” is estimated at selling 6.6 million tracks. The
success of the song may be one of the major reasons why the family decided to
go after him.
Another controversial legal dispute happened a few years ago.
In this dispute rap artist Eminem sued his record label, Universal Music Group
over the way royalties were computed for digital music. More of the recent
record labels have revised their record contracts to include digital sales. Unfortunately,
when Eminem signed his contract back in 1995 it did not make provisions its
artist for digital sales. The major discrepancy in this dispute is the
difference between Eminem as an artist being paid a 50 percent royalty for the license and 12 percent for a
sale. This was the difference between millions of dollars that Eminem would
either lose or have coming to him. A federal court jury had initially ruled in
favor of Universal in this case and then that ruling was overturned after an appeal.
It was then taken to the Supreme Court and they refused to hear the case so it
remained in favor of Eminem. This is a clear case of understanding your rights
as an artist. As I stated before, it’s not enough to be good at entertaining,
but you should also understand the business. I think it is great that Eminem
was able to recognize and stand up for his rights. His fight also helped others
with similar disputes.
The last controversial dispute that I would like to look at
the recent filing of lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association ofAmerica (RIAA) against 532 illegal file sharers. This was done in an effort to
protect copyright holders and also keep things balanced for those legitimate
online music services. As the digital age has moved in and literally taken over
various industries including the entertainment industry, it’s important that
the rights of copyright holders are protected. I think it’s a good thing that
the RIAA is doing this. People work hard to make really good music and the
music they create not only adds color to the world, but it allows those
individuals to take care of their families. These actions by the RIAA will
hopefully help cut down on the illegal activity of file sharing.
As you can see there is a lot of legal business that takes
place in the music industry. There are also many legal disputes and
controversies that arise when the law is broken or legal responsibilities are
not adhered to. Hopefully this information will help you be more aware of legal
issues that can arise and encourage you to become legally educated and also add
the proper legal representation to your team. This should cut down if not
completely eliminated the amount of controversial legal disputes you could find
yourself in over the course of your career!
