An Evening Interview with Entertainment & Business Attorney Alonzo Alston

I was happy that for my last week in my Advanced Entertainment Law we were given the assignment to search for a potential attorney to interview that has experience in our fields and can assist us in our business plans. I went about on my search and hit gold very quickly when I was referred to a Mr. Alonzo M. Alston of North Carolina and was even happier when he decided to have a two hours plus long chat with me at the end of his busy workday. Below is an excerpt of the conversation that Mr. Alston and I had as we exchanged questions, thoughts and opinions on common legal matters in the music industry and for independent recording labels.

Attorney Alonzo M. Alston ( lawyers.justia.com)

Q: Hi Mr. Alston. How are you? Can you please state your name and job title and what it is that you do in entertainment business?

A: Yes. My name is Alonzo M. Alston aka Mac (giggles). I am an Entertainment and Business attorney in North Carolina. I mostly deal with litigation and IP work.

Q: How do I best protect myself against copyright infringers on my clients’ and staff’s lyrics and sound recordings?

A: Please have a legal budget for copyright infringement lawsuits at your company. Get business insurance and get incorporated. Everything needs to be registered. Do not forget about producer agreements. Honestly, I do not think piracy is as big an issue as people think. If you are going to do a website as you say you will for your business, only provide snippets of your artists’ music on it.

Q: What are some website concerns a business like mine should watch out for, in your opinion?

A: Look out for hackers! YouTube is always amazing for promotion on your website. Try to always control your sound/editing on your website. Be careful what you put on your site and don’t think that no one is paying your site any attention. As you grow in popularity and even before, someone will notice lol.

Q: How do you reduce liability issues with software or websites?

A: Try to keep everything in-house with your staff. Just like you said you were in reading about in class, make sure all of your workers understand the privacy laws and electronic agreements. Get the right permissions and keep what you can keep “original” content on your website. Like you mentioned, have a website disclaimer apologizing if you were to infringe.

Q: What do you think about these 360 deals that record labels are creating in order to gain on all the profits an artist is ranking in?

A: For the most part this is great for the record labels and bad for the artists. The relationship an artist has with his label is important in this deal. It is only good when the artist is able to get 50% of everything and the label has the artist involved in many parts of the industry.

Q: Have you ever come across a client claiming joint ownership on a work after the fact?

A: Oh yes. Agreement is highly important! Anyone can claim they did a song so you need a formal agreement in place. Registration has to be done in the beginning. People tend to forget that when they’re making music, they have to get their business together too. There aren’t too many cases of attorneys wanting to do these types of cases and a lot of times it is because the client is broke!

Q: What is the best method for when negotiating a license fee for a permission request?

A: Read as many books as you can on this. Know what the compulsory royalty rate is. Negotiate for a fraction of the cost if you are only using a fraction of a song. Research the sample and explain to the copyright owner that you just need a master license so you can make them rich! Do your best to talk directly with the copyright owner because that will help you.

Q: What are some works/products/services that in your practice you have seen recording labels trademark or copyright most often when starting a business?

A: A lot of urban recording labels are very slow when in comes to copyrighting their music until the business grows. They lose out. They only get more serious when merchandising is involved. I will like to stress the importance of having an accountant and lawyer around for any contracts and to keep track of your revenue streams and numbers as much as you can as an owner or music publisher, if you choose to go that route. Allow the attorney to help you manage.

Me: Wow, great advice. Thank you Mr. Alston for the wonderful expert advice this evening. Excellent. 

Mr. Alston: You’re very welcome. Have a good evening and I hoped this helped and call me for anything else and for any questions you may have in the future. Goodnight! 

Mr. Alston can be reached at the following:

http://lawyers.justia.com/lawyer/alonzo-m-alston-1485208

and

http://www.McAlpinePLLC.com/

Who is Suing Who in Entertainment? 3 Copyright Infringement Stories to Learn From

Hey readers, I am back! I was browsing through some recent controversies online today and came across three of many stories revolving around copyright infringement and liabilities in the music industry that people are talking about and wanted to share my opinion on each of them.

I first visited the infamous allhiphop.com website and noticed a picture of Southern rappers the Ying Yang Twins and saw the title next to their picture saying “Rappers Sue CBS, CNET for Millions Over Illegal Downloads” and I could pretty much guess what was coming next lol. The article said how they and other money-making rappers, including 2 Live Crew and Pretty Ricky, were suing CBS’ Interactive’s website CNET because they were the main distributor of Limewire, the oh so popular peer to peer sharing software. They claimed CBS made large sums of money off of the downloads and advertisements people saw while using Limewire and basically are suing for copyright infringement and are seeking millions in damages, court costs, attorney fees and I am sure other things will pop up as this goes on.  (allhiphop.com)

Now I do agree that CBS does owe these rappers some compensation, but I wonder how will they calculate an exact amount? Royalties themselves aren’t even 100% accurate. Truthfully, a number of the rappers the article mentioned seem to be struggling financially period and I don’t think Limewire or CBS or CNET should take all the blame for their dire situations. I feel like a fair judgment will be made in this case but I feel this may later sprawl out of control because if they win a considerable amount, that opens the door for every singer or rapper to file suit against CNET and that will be a whirlwind circus because artists will be asking for more than what they are even owed thinking they should be overcompensated for their losses.

 http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2011/05/04/22743559.aspx

On to the next one! I was on the urbandaily website and saw an article about superstar rap mogul Jay-Z that I actually heard on the radio the other day so was more curious to read up on it because it involved another country and their moral rules. Jay-Z is being sued a 2^nd time for his sampling of Baligh’s Hamdy song “ Khosara Khosara” for his big hit in 2000 called “Big Pimpin”...one of my fav records I must say. The family is actually suing others including EMI and MTV in the suit and said that in 1995, they only licensed the right for Jay-Z to mechanilly reproduce the song for sound recordings while Jay-Z and his team thought they obtained all the proper permission...but maybe not so, according to Egyptian law. Egyptian copyright law holds different standards for what they call economic rights (which is solely what the family offered Jay-Z) versus moral rights, which the family says Jigga did by “mutilating” the original song by sampling it and changing it up and did so without the permission of his Hamdy’s four children.

This was interesting to read because the Judge in this case is actually “willing to entertain the nuances” of what the Egyptian law says despite a lack of U.S subject matter jurisdiction. I do not think the plaintiffs will win this case based on moral rights alone and because they are up against the “big dogs” in entertainment, but I am positive there will be a case here and that the end result will set a precedent for future similar cases that will arise in music because the industry has evolved internationally and more artists will be using samples of songs from other countries and cultures. Everyone is so focused on getting permission and licenses to use compositions and sound recordings for economic uses as the article says, and never allow any moral uses or rights or possible issues to come into play in their decision to use these original records. It is a lot for an artist or label to think about because of the possible costs and aggravation associated with trying to prove you took all the right steps and got all the legal permissions and licenses to use a foreign sample. I think for Jay-Z it was all worth it and he will think that even after the case is over.

http://theurbandaily.com/music/theurbandailystaff2/jay-z-being-sued-over-big-pimpin-sample/ (youtube)

The third article that I had to check out was titled “ Rihanna being sued for ‘S&M’ music video” and I said ohh boy! It was funny because I am a fan of Rihanna and thought this was a great visually appealing and fun video. Famous fashion photographer David LaChapelle , who directed Gwen Stefani’s ‘Rich Girl’ and Britney Spears ‘Everytime’ video to name a few, said in his lawsuit that the video is based on eight of his photographs and Tweeted “ The next time you make a David LaChapelle music video you should probably hired David LaChapelle.” He claimed the video duplicated and copied the mood, tone, props, wardrobe, and composition etc of images he produced and hasn’t disclosed how much he is seeking in damages. Riri’s people have yet to release a statement about the video or his lawsuit.

(youtube)

Her video now has over 24 million views on youtube and is probably due to the controversy surrounding the video itself like the overtly sexy content the article mentions, but hey, the song is called S&M! I agree with the director Melina Matsoukas because the video could not be played down, it was supposed to have whips and leather and other crazy stuff to live up to its name. I am anxious to see what LaChapelle is asking for and if he can really prove that they stole his images because what some of the things he mentioned are images I would conjure up myself for a video of this nature. I honestly think this case will just be settled in monies if he can prove that his copyrights were truly infringed upon because I am sure all of his images are copyrights and known to be and would be obvious to others because it is one of her most viewed videos on youtube.

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/304570/rihanna-being-

I will post future updates on these current music lawsuits as facts come along, but be careful out there musicians and composers of the world!