Podcasts: An Education on the law of the Industry

Extracted from Indybay.org

Understanding the legal implications in the entertainment industry are just as important as being part of it. As artists and content creators we should all be aware of how we can protect ourselves from getting into a lawsuit.  Marty  Schwimmer talks on a podcast about trademarks on the Internet and this is an extremely important matter. As a filmmaker, the Internet is a mainstream to the rest of the world and therefore your name should become your brand. An online presence is just as important as being part of the industry. In the late nineties, the Internet industry began to grow and the search engine litigation industry was born. The industry has been evolving and nowadays we are subject to a vast amount of information and so other people have access to our information. This is where trademarks come in hand. But how does a trademark affect the independent filmmaker? All brands out there own the trademark to their products and we have to make sure that we are not infringing on other people’s trademark. For example, something that some entertainers like to do is the mocking of a brand. These are very delicate waters and although it is possible to pursue fair use in case one of these companies files a complaint, we must by no means taint the image of any brand or company. We are creative people and as such, it should not be difficult to make up a brand to use instead of using an existing and registered one.

On another hand Brett Lewis talks on a podcast about domain names. We can always go online and buy any domain name, but be careful on what domain name you register under your name. We all know what brands are so important that they are obviously trademarks, but make sure to do your research before registering a domain. Why? Because if you register a domain name that is already a trademark, you may find yourself in a deep lawsuit for taking somebody else’s domain.

Podcasts are a great way of learning about all of this information. There is a podcast called “When media doesn’t wear a tie” where the importance of copyright is discussed. In this podcast, it is explained that users of platforms such as the Leopard Lilies platform have to copyright their own work in order to assure that even though the content is being displayed, it will never get stolen.

We all need to protect our content and learning about how to do so can save us all a headache and a lawsuit.

Here is a link to more podcasts about Trademark and Copyright laws.