Dealmaking in the Film & Television Industry: From Negotiations to Final Contracts
Mark Litwak
KF4290 .L58 2009
From the Publisher: Dealmaking—the popular, award-winning “self-defense” book for everyone working in the film and television industry—is now updated to include the latest legal rulings and entertainment technology developments. Addressing a general, non-attorney readership, it is a fascinating, highly accessible guide to current entertainment law’s peculiarities, “creative” practices, and practical applications.
The Miracle Case: Film Censorship and the Supreme Court
Laura Wittern-Keller and Raymond J. Haberski Jr.
KF4300 .W58 2008
From the Publisher: It was only a forty-minute foreign film, but it sparked a legal confrontation that has left its mark on America for more than half a century. Roberto Rossellini’s Il Miracolo (The Miracle) is deceptively simple: a demented peasant woman is seduced by a stranger she believes to be Saint Joseph, is socially ostracized for becoming pregnant out of wedlock, but is finally redeemed through motherhood. Although initially approved by state censors for screening in New York, the film was attacked as sacrilegious by the Catholic establishment, which convinced state officials to revoke distributor Joseph Burstyn’s license. In response, Burstyn fought back through the courts and won.
Laura Wittern-Keller and Raymond Haberski show how the Supreme Court’s unanimous 1952 ruling in Burstyn’s favor sparked a chain of litigation that eventually brought filmmaking under the protective umbrella of the First Amendment, overturning its long-outdated decision in Mutual v. Ohio (1915).
. . . More than the inside story of one case, this book explores the unique place that the movies occupy in American culture and the way that culture continues to be shaped by anxiety over the social power of movies. The Burstyn decision weakened the ability of state censorship boards and the Catholic Church to influence the types of films Americans were allowed to see. Consequently, the case signaled the rise of a new era in which films would be more mature and more controversial than ever before. Focusing on this single most important case in the jurisprudence surrounding motion picture expression, Wittern-Keller and Haberski add a significant new dimension to the story of cinema, censorship, and the history of First Amendment protections.
Music and Copyright
Ronald S. Rosen
KF3035 .R67 2008
From the Publisher: The highly topical area of copyright law, as applied to music, is widely misunderstood by lawyers, business people, and – perhaps most seriously – the federal judiciary. More than ever, there is a need to understand music infringement issues within the context of copyright litigation. In Music and Copyright, Ron Rosen provides readers with a practical and strategic roadmap to the music infringement litigation process, beginning with the client’s claim or defense and continuing through the selection and use of trial experts, discovery, motion practice, and trial.
Renowned for his expertise and career-long commitment to entertainment, intellectual property, and commercial litigation, Ron Rosen has condensed his experience into an essential guide for anyone involved in music-infringement litigation. Packed with elucidating examples from the author’s own practice, Music and Copyright navigates the often thorny terrain between notions of the legal and the musical providing practical advice, case studies, forms, and commentary along the way.
Entertainment Law & Business: A Guide to the Law and Business Practices of the Entertainment Industry
Jay Shanker, David E. Guinn, and Harold Orenstein
KF4290 .S53 2008
From the Publisher: Entertainment Law and Business is a handy resource for both the experienced and novice practitioner. It provides a broad survey of the entire industry and creative rights laws. It includes incisive summaries of all of the important areas of creative rights law: copyrights, the protection of ideas, trademark, publicity and privacy, and the major international treaties. It also provides an overview of all the major fields of entertainment (and related fields of interest for entertainment practitioners) along with illustrative agreements.
This is not an esoteric academic treatise. The book aims to aid the practitioner in the practical aspects of entertainment. Hence, the authors have attempted to highlight the key features of the major agreements in each field. They provide insights not only into what the individual provisions of the agreement attempts to regulate, but also the concerns that lie behind those provisions. They point to the types of negotiating strategies important in each agreement, passing on their experience to the practitioner.
Freedom of the Screen: Legal Challenges to State Film Censorship, 1915-1981
Laura Wittern-Keller
PN1995.62 .W58 2008
From the Publisher: At the turn of the twentieth century, the proliferation of movies attracted not only the attention of audiences across America but also the apprehensive eyes of government officials and special interest groups concerned about the messages disseminated by the silver screen. Between 1907 and 1926, seven states-New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Kansas, Maryland, and Massachusetts-and more than one hundred cities authorized censors to suppress all images and messages considered inappropriate for American audiences […].
[S]ome industry outsiders, independent distributors who believed that movies deserved the free speech protections of the First Amendment, brought legal challenges to censorship at the state and local levels. Freedom of the Screen chronicles both the evolution of judicial attitudes toward film restriction and the plight of the individuals who fought for the right to deliver provocative and relevant movies to American audiences. As the fight against censorship progressed case by case through state courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, legal authorities and the public responded, growing increasingly sympathetic toward artistic freedom. Because a small, unorganized group of independent film distributors and exhibitors in midtwentieth-century America fought back against what they believed was the unconstitutional prior restraint of motion pictures, film after 1965 was able to follow a new path, maturing into an artistic medium for the communication of ideas, however controversial. Government censors would no longer control the content of America’s movie screens.
Music, Money, and Success: The Insider’s Guide to Making Money in the Music Business
Jeffrey Brabec & Todd Brabec
R673 ML3790 .B72 2008
From the Publisher: Songwriting, licensing, contracts, film & tv, composing, the internet, Broadway, recording and music publishing is a business. This book tells you how the business works… What you must know to succeed… and how much money you can make. The Brabecs, are former recording artists, entertainment lawyers, and legal services attorneys.
ThomChat 