Ken Basin

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The entertainment industry can be a legal minefield. And while the legal issues that face documentary filmmakers may not be unique, documentarians — who typically work on shoestring budgets, rely heavily on preexisting copyrighted materials, and often say things that moneyed and powerful interests don’t want to hear — are uniquely vulnerable. With that in mind, here’s a “top 5” list of legal issues that you, our favorite documentary filmmaker (yes, you, silly), should know about when planning, making, and selling your film. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Jesse Saivar

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Q: Do all contracts have to be in writing?

A: I like you. No messing around, no background, just a short, straight-shootin’ question. Well, I’ve got a short, but not so straight-shootin’ answer: Not necessarily.

In fact, the majority of contracts that you deal with in your daily life are not in writing. Most are not even oral. Let’s say you rush to your local, mom-and-pop bookstore (e.g., Border’s or Barnes & Noble) to pick up the latest book in the Twilight series. You slide your money across the counter and rush out of the store, teen abstinence drama in hand, skipping with glee. A week later, when you’re only on page 68, an employee of Border’s shows up at your door and rips the book out of your hands. “We didn’t have a written contract so our transaction is invalid” she tells you, with bespectacled smugness. Can they do this?! Of course not. When you paid your money and they let you walk out of the store with your shiny new book, what you had entered into was a binding “implied” contract. It was implied that your payment allowed you to own the book; there was no need for you to enter into an express written or oral agreement. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Dan Nabel

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As comedian Myq Kaplan says, “There’s a spectrum of dorkery from people who use words like dorkery and those who do not.” When Starcraft II was released on July 23, I was one of the millions of uberdorks around the world whose preorder instantly made it the fastest and best-selling computer game of 2010. As an additional testament to my dorkery, I soon thereafter identified a myriad of legal issues with the game.

Number one, the game destroys graphics cards (especially in laptops) because Activision-Blizzard forgot to include a framerate cap. This small oversight caused thousands of graphics cards like mine to overheat and die during game play. Huge potential for a class-action lawsuit? Possibly, but not very interesting, academically.

Number two, the game has a gigantic, mechanized soldier unit based on Arnold Schwarzenegger called the “Thor” (yielding the optimal blend of dorkery and machismo). But alas, as any Arnold aficionado can immediately tell, the Thor is voiced by a sound-alike and not the actual Governator. This made me wonder: did Arnold license his right of publicity forStarcraft II, or does the First Amendment give Activision-Blizzard the right to use Arnold’s likeness without his permission? Continue reading the full story . . . »

Ricardo Cestero

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The Madden NFL series of video games is the latest victim of the rash of lawsuits attacking video games for allegedly using celebrity likenesses without permission. Earlier this month, a retired Cincinnati Bengal and Tampa Bay Buccaneer named Michael, a.k.a “Tony,” Davisbrought a class action lawsuit on behalf of 6,000 retired NFL players, accusing publisher EA Sports of using likenesses of retired NFL players in its games without permission. Our regular readers know all about the ubiquity of these right of publicity cases, and in particular, how they’ve emerged in the video game context. And the script is usually familiar: video game portrays well-known celebrity’s image or likeness, celebrity gets mad, and it’s off to the courthouse. But this case is particularly interesting, because the plaintiffs’ claims don’t actually involve EA using their names or likeness. Continue reading the full story . . . »

Matt Galsor

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Q: Let’s say there’s a book (like a “how to” book)… and I want to write a screenplay about a guy who uses that book (the film title would be same as the book)… do I still need to option that book? I mean, I understand that if the book itself is a story, and I want to translate that story into a screenplay, then I need to option it. However, in this case, it’s not a story… it’s like, “An Instructional Guide to Something.” I would be creating the fiction (people, places and events) about a guy who is using that book to propel him through the plot. So does that require me purchasing the option?

A: Is the instructional book How to Ask Difficult Legal Questions that Would Make a Law Professor Proud? (If so, I think you’ve taken that book to heart, but I must confess that I probably won’t be seeing your movie.) Continue reading the full story . . . »

Elisabeth Moriarty

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I love old family movies. You know, those frenetic-yet-nostalgic, motion-sickness-inducing Super 8 films from your childhood? (Believe you me, the cinéma vérité, shaky-cam directors who are currently in vogue have nothing on my dad…) Now that my family’s home movie library has been converted to DVD, there are endless opportunities to force my husband to watch me and my mom ride a camel at “Jungle Habitat” (can I get a shout-out from those of you who grew up in the NY/New Jersey area in the mid-1970’s?) or the fourth of July picnic where the sparkler burned my hand, or — one of my personal favorites — my five year-old self singing “On the Good Ship Lollipop” and dancing the Charleston in the first grade holiday play (trust me, its cuter than it sounds).

And so it was with great anticipation that I prepared our video camera for my seven year-old’s musical theater debut in her summer camp’s production of Grease: The G-Rated Version (no swearing, no teen pregnancy, no smoking, no men rubbing cellophane on their crotches…)

But then we got the letter. Continue reading the full story . . . »