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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO FACULTY OF LAW Y R A R B LI ENTERTAINMENT LAW Susan Abramovitch Winter 2008 BORA LAS'® LAW LIBRARY JAN - 8 2008 FACULTY OF LAW HK#/t:RRITY of TORONTO ENTERTAINMENT LAW Susan Abramovitch Winter 2008 Entertainment Law University of Toronto Winter 2008 Instructor Contact Information: Name: Susan Abramovitch Email: [email protected] Assistant: Deborah Pritchard Email: [email protected] Phone: (416) 369-7230 Coursebook Coordinator: Daniel Cole Email: [email protected] Phone: (416) 814-5666 Office Hours: times available by appointment only (please contact my assistant) Class Meeting Times and Location: Thursdays: 4:10pm - 6.00pm Course Description: This is a specialized contract law course that will cover the contractual issues that are essential to the film, television, music and digital media industries. Having said that, we will emphasize the practical over the theoretical. A central objective is to provide students with an understanding of the music, film, television and videogaming businesses. Just as important, you will meet several entertainment lawyers, each of whom has his or her own distinctive style of practicing entertainment law. You will examine and discuss actual agreements with the lawyers who negotiated them. Your course of study will cover the practical and legal aspects involved in the acquisition and exploitation of various rights. For example: domestic and international distribution, licensing, publishing and production agreements. It is intended that you will come away from the course with an appreciation not just for the legal issues that underlie the various agreements, but also the drafting and negotiation of those agreements. Evaluation: • 100% final examination, open book • Date of final examination: April 15, 2008 Course Materials: • Required Text: Entertainment Law Casebook, Winter 2008 ed., Susan Abramovitch • Legislation: Copyright Act, R.S.C. ^ 985, c.-42. - Available online: http://www.canlii.org/ca/sta/c-42/ Draft Bill C-60 - Available online: http://www.parl.gc.ca/38/1/paribus/ chambus/house/bills/government/C-60/C-60_1/C-60-3E.html TOR_LANV'6651855 2 2 Date Subject Matter Instructor($) Introduction • Behind the scenes - the entertainment law industry 10-Jan-08 Susan Abramovitch • So you want my job? - a day in the life of an entertainment lawyer Music (1) 17-Jan-08 Susan Abramovitch • Recording Agreements Film and Television (1) - Development/Production • Acquiring underlying rights • Original productions and formats • Hiring writers David Zitzerman and 24-Jan-08 • Engaging cast and crew Michael Levine • Locations • Banking insurance and completion guarantees • Production financing Film and Television (2) - Financing 31-Jan-08 Carolyn Stamegna • Securing financing for film production Music (2) 07-Feb-08 Susan Abramovitch • Music Publishing Agreements Videogaming (1) • Regulation of property in videogames 14-Feb-08 • Virtual markets Susan Abramovitch • Intellectual property in virtual property • Risks in virtual worlds 21-Feb-08 ***** READING WEEK ***** Videogaming (2) 28-Feb-08 Susan Abramovitch • TBD Negotiation Strategy 06-Mar-08 Graham Henderson • The Art of the Deal Copyright Reform 13-Mar-08 • The WlPO Treaties and priority issues Richard Pfohl • How will copyright reform affect entertainment law? Personality Issues 20-Mar-08 Susan Abramovitch • Misappropriation of Personality 27-Mar-08 Mobile Distribution Roland Taylor 03-Apr-08 Exam Review Class Susan Abramovitch TOR_LAW\6651855\2 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from University of Toronto https://archive.org/details/entertainmentlaw00abra_0 LECTURE 1 INTRODUCTION Behind the scenes - the entertainment law industry So you want my job? - a day in the life of an entertainment lawyer Susan Abramovitch 5 THE MUSIC INDUSTRY SUSAN H. ABRAMOVITCH Cowling, Lafleur, Henderson LLP Suite 1600, 1 First Canadian Place 100 King Street West Toronto, ON M5X 1G5 T. (416) 814-5673 F. (416) 862-7661 Website: www.gowlings.com e-mail: [email protected] TOR_LAW\ 6633003\2 6 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS The following materials include a precis on the music industry, two fact situations with accompanying exercises, and related excerpted royalty provisions from a recording agreement and publishing agreements, respectively. The fact situation pertaining to a recording contract will be addressed in the first class and the one pertaining to music publishing contracts will be addressed in the second class. You will need to read the precis prior to doing the exercises. Prior to my lecture, I would ask that you review all of these materials and attempt the first exercise. My experience has been that only a handful of students actually bother to prepare this assignment in advance. Those who did not prepare prior to the lecture experienced difficulty following along and really did not benefit from the format of my presentation, which is more practical than theoretical. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Copyright and the Music Industry p.3 2. General Comments about the Fact Situations p.27 3. Fact Situation 1: Jerry Sizzler p.28 (i) Exercise 1: Recording Agreement p.29 (ii) Excerpted provisions from a long form recording contract p.30 4. Fact Situation 2: Scott Soul p.38 (i) Exercise 2: Publishing Agreements p.38 (ii) Excerpted provisions from a publishing and co-publishing contract p.39 5. Recommended Reading p.58 - ? . TOR LAW'6633003\2