I am asked this question all the time. My answer is registration at the Copyright Office is much better, and significantly more valuable. With apologies to my friends and colleagues who work at the WGA, I wouldn’t bother registering at the WGA East or West,...
With more songwriters administering their own catalogs, and the growth of the music publishing industry generally, songwriters and publishers should be aware of their responsibilities and opportunities for sub-publishing. It may be even more important to know the consequences of not having a subpublisher on...
Establishes Group Registration for Works on an Album of Music (“GRAM”) By Marc Jacobson, Esq. Under a new rule, the US Copyright Office will allow an applicant to register between two and twenty musical works or sound recordings, found in an album, with one application. To do...
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was enacted in response to a very difficult decision made in May 1995 by a trial court judge in Nassau County, NY. Nassau County was, and probably still is to a large degree, a bedroom community for New...
VideoAge asked me to write a few words about the loss of jobs in Hollywood due to the pandemic. The article appeared in the January 2021 issue, for this year's NATPE. The article, in both print and audio, can be found here: https://www.videoageinternational.net/2021/01/18/cover-stories/hollywoods-exodus-put-displaced-tribes-at-a-job-crossroads/...
Proposed SEC Exemptive Order makes Finders who follow new proposed rules Eligible for success-based fees. by Marc Jacobson How Filmmakers Currently Raise Capital. Often, when a filmmaker starts raising money for a film, she enters into one or more finder’s fee agreements. These agreements typically provide that...
At 40% cash rebate, it is one of the highest in the world. By Marc Jacobson, Esq. The beautiful country of Greece, which some consider to be the cradle of civilization, recently increased its cash rebate for film and TV production to 40% of qualifying expenses, up from 35%....
By Marc Jacobson, Esq. and Jerome M. Hesch, Esq. In the past, recording artists frequently entered into agreements with record labels through a loan out corporation which two recent cases confirm had the effect of eliminating their ability to exercise the statutory termination right, as codified...
By Marc Jacobson, Esq. When Governor Cuomo signed into law the budget for New York State on April 3, 2020, not only did New York become the first state to address federal legislation regarding the CARES Act, which provides financial relief to businesses and others as...
This article will discuss how a film producer can turn the New York State Film Tax Credit Program for Production (really a rebate) available in New York State into cash to be used for the production of a film. We assume the film will be...