Month Eight – Advanced Entertainment Law
This month turned out to be my favorite course during the EBMS program at Full Sail University. Our teacher, Cassie Willard, was extremely talented. She managed to cram so much legal information into our heads in such a short time that I was simply amazed. Every day we covered a new aspect of laws. This is the single month at Full Sail where I was introduced to the most new concepts and I really enjoyed it.
We were given a chance to research and present legal cases in front of the class. For our Leadership Portfolio assignment we were to research a legal case that could be applied or affect your business plan.
Researching a Legal Case [MDY Industries vs Blizzard Inc.]
One of the main risks and concerns associated with my business plan for VXGaming LLC is the risk of hackers cheating in order to gain an unfair advantage. In order to determine how to deal with potential attacks I designed to research MDY Industries vs. Blizzard Inc.
That resulted in this research paper: Research Paper – MDY Industries vs Blizzard Inc Case Analysis and accompanying presentation:
Leadership Portfolio – Interviewing a Lawyer
When starting a new company it is critical to have the proper legal representation in place in order to avoid issues down the road. I was tasked with interviewing an entertainment lawyer in order to better prepare myself for starting a business after graduation. I decided to interview Erik Hart, a California lawyer, as it is one of the states where I am considering opening my business.
Erik Hart was playing division 1A college football when he decided he wanted to go to law school in order to become a sports agent. When it came time for him to get his second year summer internship he sent out 400 resumes to various sports teams and entertainment companies/agencies. Out of the 400 applications he only heard back from 2. The first one was the Los Angeles Raiders. They offered him an internship, but it would be split between Los Angeles and Oakland as the team was moving that summer. The other was Roger Corman, a producer and director of low-budget movies. He has given many people their start in the show business including Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, and Robert De Niro. Mr. Corman’s company was across the street from Eric’s best friend in High School. He took the job and stayed at his friend’s apartment for the summer. By the end of the summer he had decided that making movies was a lot more fun than dealing with sweaty football players. Eric’s first paying job was with Aaron Spelling’s Spelling Entertainment. He then proceeded to work for Paramount Pictures. Eventually Eric established his own practice where he has been working for the last 8 years. His primary practice is the production of independent motion pictures. Some of the items he deals with are copyrights, contracts, and first amendment issues.
When asked about a “shining moment” in his practice, Eric confidently responds that he has had a lot of them. In 1998 Gene Autry and Roy Rogers passed away within months of each other. At the time Eric worked for Spelling Entertainment who owned the library of the old “Republic Pictures” studio who made the classic cowboy movies from the 1930s and 40s. It was his job to help the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) get the legal clearances for the footage in a special “memorial reel” for the 1999 Academy Awards. Val Kilmer presented the reel that Eric had had a hand in making. He was honored to have a small part in recognizing the legacy of those two actors.
I asked Eric about what major legal liabilities he was aware of in the software industry. He stated that in his opinion the law of the software industry is a mess. His two primary concerns are the issues of infringement and piracy. In his opinion some of the early software cases set some bad precedents that have made the effective prosecuting of those crimes even more difficult. He also stated that the law is very slow to keep up with new technologies. In his opinion it is like a game of cat and mouse, where the law is always playing catch-up. Over 10 years ago, when he first got started as an entertainment lawyer, one of his first jobs was to find out how to legally exploit his company’s properties on the Internet. The contracts they had in place, some of them over 50 years old, had never envisioned such technology. There were no places to look for guidance, as the courts had not yet set any precedents. As an example Eric decided that streaming videos on the Internet had the most in common with television broadcast rights. Affected parties are still to this day fighting over who gets paid what from digital streaming media.
I also asked him about what some of the major pitfalls and things to be on the lookout for when starting a software company were. He said it has all of the pitfalls of a regular business start-up (corporate formation, capitalization, business planning, investors, SEC issues, labor/employment issues, etc) in addition to some other problems such as anti-trust and market saturation issues. He said the most difficult task is proper capitalization and funding, especially after the dotcom bust and with the current state of the economy. As the economy continues to crumble, a lot of investors are holding onto their money in order to stay as liquid as possible for when things start to turn around. He says that raising capital from third parties can be a legal minefield for inexperienced businessmen.
He could not give me any general rates for entertainment lawyers, as it varies from lawyer to lawyer, depending on experience, expertise and contacts. He said some charge a few hundred dollars an hour while others charge a lot more. I also questioned him about the importance of networking in the entertainment industry, as it seems that is how he built his way up the ladder starting with the internship for Roger Corman. He said to never underestimate the power of networking. The entertainment industry is very small, a lot of people know each other and that’s how you advance.
Overall, it was very interesting interviewing Erik Hart. He has a lot of experience in the entertainment industry. However, I don’t think he would be a good fit for my company since his practice is specialized towards films and moving-making. After reflecting upon the interview I realize the importance of getting the proper legal representation when starting a company. If you try to do everything yourself in order to save up-front costs it could end up hurting you in the long run. I also find the networking story of how his internship sparked a career very inspiring.
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