©2017Jon Cavicchi

Professor and IP Librarian

Entertainment : areas of lawTopics : rights of publicity, trademark law, copyright law, misappropriation of ideas, life rights, privacy rights, defamation, advertising and endorsement, constitutional issues, representation, insurance, labor and employment, and contract issues that arise in the context of the entertainment industry.

Consider how the doctrines relate to one another and how industry norms shape practices and outcomes.

Sources expand as you expand country by country and internationally

Once you identify a problem within an industry or industries, you should delve into it more deeply. Questions might include:

- What are the various perspectives on this issue? Who are the stakeholders?- Who benefits from the current situation and who loses out?- Is it widely acknowledged to be a problem? Why or why not? By all or only by some?- When/why/how did the problem come to be?- Are there relevant sources of federal or state law, including cases or statutes, that exacerbate, ameliorate, or contributed to the creation of this problem?- Are there cases that acknowledge the problem? How do they frame it? - Are the approaches of various jurisdictions consistent or inconsistent? - What, if anything, brought the problem to a head or led to awareness of it?- Would any proposed legislation or pending cases resolve the issue?- What is the universe of possible solutions? - Which solution do you advocate and why? - What values motivate that choice?

Best approach = 1-1 reference interview

• What data do you need?• Find source(s)• Evaluate Sources• Choose Source• Search Source

– One box– Drill down– Boolean T/C – Index

• Data to information

• Legal

• Social issues

• Business issues

• Government new and data

• Events

• People

• Industry

• Statistics/data

• So many sites…– ALWAYS QUESTION WHERE THE DATA COMES FROM– Individual companies

• Entertainment industry data aggregators• Legal aggregators (Wexis)• General aggregators • News • Associations• Governments• Miscellaneous

• Begin your research path with a goal• Figure out what you have access to• Can I get what I need on an open/free site• Categories of industry sources similar• Use search engines to find seed sites• Use site search to find news & data• Use Google Advanced Search to search site if

Google is not adopted by the site• Research is iterative…learn and move along• Evaluate sites and where they get their data

Turn to Information Professionals

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

• Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

• Alliance of Special Effects and Pyrotechnic Operators (ASEPO)

• American Cinematheque

• American Film Institute

• American Film Marketing AssociationSee: Independent Film and Television Alliance

• American Society of Cinematographers

• American Society of Composers, Authors & Radio Artists

• Association of Independent Commercial Producers

• Association of Independent Video & Filmmakers

• Association of Talent Agents

• California Cable and Telecommunications Association

• Casting Society of America

• Film Independent

• Independent Film & Television Alliance

• International Documentary Association

• Motion Picture Association of America (MPPA)

• Music Video Production Association

• National Association of Theater Owners (NATO)

• Production Equipment Rental Association

• The Recording Academy

• Set Decorator's Society of America

• Stuntmen Association

• United Stuntwomen's Associatio

• Video Software Dealers Association

• Women In Film

• Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers

• American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA)

• Director's Guild of America

• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE

• Location Managers Guild of America

• Motion Picture Editors Guild

• Motion Picture Sound Editors

• Producer's Guild of America

• Screen Actor's Guild

• Teamsters - Location Managers, Drivers, Dispatchers, Autoservice Personnel, Mechanics, Couriers, Chef Drivers, Animal Trainers, Wranglers, Warehousemen

• Writers Guild of America

Blog on technology trends and related business and economic policy issues,

often focusing on IP reform.

Database of over 25,000 record label/netlabel web sites or Wikipedia links indexed by genre, format, and

location.

• Investigating the copyright status of a work– Remember the “bundle of rights” divisible– A focused search of a work's registrations, renewals,

and assignment history.

• Copyright Office does not perform a search to determine whether a work is original.

• Searches are not necessary under the copyright code.

• Can also search on Westlaw and Lexis.com

Searching Industry Specific Licensing Organizations

• Occult data

– SEC filings for public companies

Social Media

RU an IP TWEEP?

Email based newsletters

• Legal Publishers

• Law Firms

• Government sites

• NGOs

• Solutions providers

• Academics/law schools

• Blogs

Entertainment Law Blogs

• Most popular

• Most informative

• Most scholarly

• Most useful

• How to find them

• How to evaluate them

• How to use them

• How to search them

• How to manipulate them

Some evaluation questions• Who is the blogger? With so many blogs offering spotty or nonexistent “about” pages, this

may be a clue in itself.

• What sorts of materials is the blogger reading or citing?

• Does this blogger have influence? Is the blog well-established? Who and how many people link to the blog? Who is commenting? Does this blog appear to be part of a community?

• Is this content covered in any depth, with any authority?

• How sophisticated is the language, the spelling?

• Is this blog alive? It there a substantial archive? How current are the posts?

• At what point in a story’s lifetime did a post appear? Examining a story’s date may offer clues as to the reliability of a blog entry.

• Is the site upfront about its bias? Does it recognize/discuss other points of view? (For certain information tasks–an essay or debate–bias may be especially useful. Students need to recognize it.)

• If the blogger is not a traditional “expert,” is this a first-hand view that would also be valuable for research? Is it a unique perspective?

• http://21cif.com/rkitp/assessment/v1n5/blog_evaluation_assessment_v1n5.html

Twitter

• Often first instance of IP news

• Most law firms and IP organizations tweet

• Links in tweets may be only place to get a doc

• “Tweets get buried and lost…Twitter is useless”

– Set up two twitter accounts

• One for PR or fun & other to follow select few

• Tweets are now searchable on Google

Linkedin Groups

Podcasts