Entertainment law or media law is a general term for a mix of more traditional categories of law with a focus on providing legal services to the entertainment industry. Generally speaking the practice of entertainment law often involves questions of employment law (employment contracts for talent and production personnel), labor law (negotiating and arbitrating with trade unions), immigration issues regarding foreign talent, securities law regarding promoting properties, security interests, payment and collection of royalties, agency, intellectual property and insurance law. Much of the work of an entertainment law practice is transaction based, i.e. drafting contracts, negotiation and mediation. Some situations may lead to litigation or arbitration. Entertainment is an amusement or diversion intended to hold the attention of an audience or its participants. ... The entertainment industry consists of a large number of sub-industries devoted to entertainment. ... In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister, solicitor or civil... Employment law is the branch of the law that deals with employment related issues. ... This article is in need of attention. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... There are seven federal statutes that regulate federal securities transactions: Securities Act of 1933 Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 Trust Indenture Act of 1939 Investment Company Act of 1940 Investment Advisers Act of 1940 Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 Categories: Stub | United... A security interest is an proprietary right in a debtors property that secures payment or performance of an obligation. ... Look up Agency in Wiktionary, the free dictionary In philosophy, law, and other fields, agency is the status of an agent. ... Intellectual property, or IP, refers to a legal entitlement which sometimes attaches to the expressed form of an idea, or to some other intangible subject matter. ... Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of potential financial loss. ... All the textbooks define a contract as either a promise or an agreement that is enfored or recognised by the law. ... Negotiation is the process whereby interested parties resolve disputes, agree upon courses of action, bargain for individual or collective advantage, and/or attempt to craft outcomes which serve their mutual interests. ... Mediation consists of a process of alternative dispute resolution in which a (generally) neutral third party, the mediator, using appropriate techniques, assists two or more parties to help them negotiate an agreement, with concrete effects, on a matter of common interest. ... A lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in order to recover a right, obtain damages for an injury, obtain an injunction to prevent an injury, or obtain a declaratory judgment to prevent future legal disputes. ... Arbitration is a form of mediation or conciliation, where the mediating party is given power by the disputant parties to settle the dispute by making a finding. ...

Entertainment law is generally sub-divided into the following areas related to the types of activities that have their own specific trade unions, production techniques, rules, customs, case law, and negotiation strategies: Custom has a number of meanings: A custom is a common practice among a group of people, especially depending on country, culture, time, and religion. ... Case law (precedential law) is the body of judge-made law and legal decisions that interprets prior case law, statutes and other legal authority -- including doctrinal writings by legal scholars such as the Corpus Juris Secundum, Halsburys Laws of England or the doctinal writings found in the Recueil Dalloz...

• FILM: covering option agreements, finance, chain of title issues, talent agreements (scriptwriters, film directors, actors, composers, set designers), production and post production and trade union issues, distribution issues, motion picture industry negotiations distribution, and general intellectual property issues relating to copyright and, to a lesser extent, trademarks;

• MUSIC: including talent agreements (musicians, composers) producer agreements, and synchronisation rights, music industry negotiation and general intellectual property issues relating to copyright;

• TELEVISION and RADIO including broadcast licensing and regulatory issues, mechanical licenses;

• THEATRE: including rental agreements and co-production agreements, and other performance oriented legal issues;
• MULTIMEDIA, including software licensing issues, video game development and production;

• PUBLISHING and print media issues, including advertising, models, author agreements and other copyright related issues;

• VISUAL ARTS AND DESIGN including fine arts, issues of consignment of artworks to art dealers, moral rights of sculptors regarding works in public places; and industrial design, issues related to the protection of graphic design elements in products.

Defamation (libel and slander), personality rights and privacy rights issues also arise in entertainment law. Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... In the film industry, an option is a contractual agreement between a movie studio, a production company, or a producer (henceforth called the producer) and a writer, in which the producer obtains the right to buy a screenplay from the writer, before a certain date. ... Finance studies and addresses the ways in which individuals, businesses and organizations raise, allocate and use monetary resources over time, taking into account the risks entailed in their projects. ... A chain of title is the sequence of historical transfers of title to a property. ... This list is poorly defined, permanently incomplete, or has become unverifiable or an indiscriminate list or repository of loosely associated topics. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Designer is a broad term for a person who designs any of a variety of things. ... Film editing is the connecting of one or more shots together in a sequence. ... In the film business, distribution refers to the marketing and circulation of movies in theatres. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... Movie marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Intellectual property, or IP, refers to a legal entitlement which sometimes attaches to the expressed form of an idea, or to some other intangible subject matter. ... Copyright symbol. ... A trademark (Commonwealth English: trade mark) is a distinctive sign of some kind which is used by a business to uniquely identify itself and its products and services to consumers, and to distinguish the business and its products or services from those of other businesses. ... Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves organized and audible sound, though definitions vary. ... A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the performers, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... The music industry is the industry that creates, performs, promotes, and preserves music. ... Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. ... Radio is the wireless transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light. ... How to obtain a amature radio licence differs from country to country. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Renting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good owned by another person or company. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Multimedia is the use of several different media to convey information (text, audio, graphics, animation, video, and interactivity). ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Publishing is the industry of the production of literature or information - the activity of putting information for public view. ... Print media includes newspapers, magazines, and the like. ... Generally speaking, advertising is the promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, usually by an identified sponsor. ... The cover of a Victorias Secret catalog, a catalog known for its lingerie models. ... An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... Many times, the term art is used to refer to the visual arts. ... The term fine art was first attested in 1767, as a translation from the French term beaux arts. ... Consignment is placing a person or thing in the hand of another, but retaining ownership until the goods are sold or person is transfered. ... Industrial design is an applied art whereby the aesthetics and usability of products may be improved. ... In English and American law, and systems based on them, libel and slander are two forms of defamation (or defamation of character), which is the tort or delict of making a false statement of fact that injures someones reputation. ... In English and American law, and systems based on them, libel and slander are two forms of defamation (or defamation of character), which is the tort or delict of making a false statement of fact that injures someones reputation. ... In English and American law, and systems based on them, libel and slander are two forms of defamation (or defamation of character), which is the tort or delict of making a false statement of fact that injures someones reputation. ... Personality rights are generally considered to consist of two types of rights: the right to privacy, or to keep ones image and likeness from being exploited without permission or contractual compensation, and the right to publicity use of ones identity, which is similar to the use of a... Privacy is a modern construct. ...

External links

• Columbia Law School Music Plagiarism Project
• The International Association of Entertainment Lawyers
• Entertainment Law Digest
• Courthouse News
• Film Services Office, Hong Kong