Entertainment Law Update Blog

So, I could not rest until I completed this assignment on an entertainment law podcast. I originally attempted to locate an entertainment attorney, without success, I decided to listen to two podcasts on EntertainmentLawUpdate.com. This podcast covers many current events and topics throughout the entertainment industry. One of the stories that pertain to my business plan was the story about Robin Thicke and his song “Blurred Lines”. The heirs to the estate of Marvin Gaye are attempting to sue Robin Thicke for the song, “blurred lines”. They gave family believed that Robin Thicke took Marvin Gaye song “got to give it up”. There has been many articles and videos about the two songs something similar. There is even a video of Robin Thicke talking about the songs and comparing them together. Is yet to be determined as to whether Robin Thicke copied the song from Marvin Gaye, however Thicke did file a declarative action suit against Marvin Gaye’s family to try and stop any lawsuit from Gay’s family.

            The intellectual property at risk here is the songs copyright. Music is often a hard medium to dissect when looking for evidence in copyright infringement. The song has to be dissected piece by piece, and broken down in order to prove that Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines”, takes substantial musical quality from the original song.

            Also, Bridgeport music is claiming that the song “Blurred Lines” has similarities to one of their songs, “Sexy Ways”, performed by the group George Clinton and Funkadelic. George Clinton has come out publicly on Twitter and said there is no sample of his music in the “Blurred Lines” song.

            In my personal experience as a DJ, I have played both songs blurred lines, and got to give it up, back-to-back and no one on the floor was the wiser. The songs have very similar grooves and musical elements. However, making a claim that “blurred lines” was stolen from Marvin Gaye song is a hard bargain. There are many songs that sound similar and have the same “feel” as other songs from past popular hits. The record producer, Pharrell Williams, was very clever in the way in which he re-created the field of Marvin Gaye’s classic song. Williams understands that he could not out right take the song, but he could make a song that feels the same, with the same tempo as Marvin Gaye’s classic song.

The second podcast I listened to was from EntertainmentLawUpdate.com as well. The story that stood out to me was the story about the interns at Warner Music that that have a class action lawsuit. Justin Henry claimed that he worked for free as an intern for Warner Music. He claimed that he was treated as an unpaid employee. The claim is that Warner is in violation of the employee wage laws.  This started a snowball of lawsuits against companies who house interns, looking for a way into the entertainment business.

            This, in my opinion, causes a great deal of problems for the Entertainment industry. I believe that interning is one of the best ways to gain experience in the industry, and it’s the proving ground for many up and coming directors, actors and producers. This makes me think twice about the growth plan for my business. I originally planned on using interns in year two. I however will not use an intern if I am in fear as a business owner that they will turn around and sue me for treating them as an unpaid employee.