Left to Right: CRAS AES President Jeff Brilhante, CRAS AES Vice President Colin Willard, CRAS Music Business Instructor John Berry, CRAS Music Business Instructor Glen O'Hare, Entertainment Lawyer Stephen Wade Nebgen, CRAS AES Secretary Daniel Stephenson II
Stephen started us off this evening with letting us know his background and what he's doing now. He is currently a professor at local Mesa Community College teaching entertainment law. He also produces as well as practicing law. Stephen warns that when your looking for an entertainment lawyer be careful because this is the entertainment industry. Entertainment is not an easy business. Make sure that the lawyer your hiring actually understands the industry itself. Stephen has been a producer for 40 years.
When your in the industry trying to do everything yourself, you can also screw everything up yourself as well. One of the biggest things to look out for is when sound recordings change into digital recordings. He covered first and foremost copyright law, then went on to discus performance royalties and trademarking band logos. Make sure to get a clear understanding of what a band agreements, and songwriting agreements really mean.
Theres 5 levels of trademarks. The lowest is a generic mark, for example a modem, or light beer. The next level is descriptive. It wont get trademarked unless it has secondary meaning. The next level is suggestive. It has to combine words that suggest and also identify an entity. The last two levels is arbitrary, where there is no obvious connection between whats in question and the name. and completely made up (Rolex, Kellogg's, etc.) With trademarking you don't get a trademark until you use it. Also try and form a music publishing company.
When registering your songs make sure to put down a music publisher as well. Once a song is published and is up for public sale, anyone can rerecord that song as long as they get a Mechanical License. When reading contracts look for Attorneys fees clause. If you don't see one in the contract it should immediately raise red flags, in particularly in the entertainment industry. Stephen ended his presentation letting everyone know how important it is to hire a lawyer because no matter how much you think you can handle yourself in a courtroom, you'll never understand the legal terms like a lawyer does.
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