7 Legal Trends for Artists and Entrepreneurs from 2015

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7 Legal Trends for Artists and Entrepreneurs from 2015

The end of a year is a time to reflect on the changes in our lives, and that holds true for the life of American law, which often struggles to keep up with technology. From the arrival of new forms of, and new uses for, social media (iTunes App Store favorites Periscope and Meerkat, with Facebook bringing the competition) to the envelope-pushing of artists and photographers, law related to art and entrepreneurship is in as much a state of flux as it has ever been.

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Some Guy is Pretending to be Me, and I'm Okay with That... For Now.

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Some Guy is Pretending to be Me, and I'm Okay with That... For Now.

Maybe it's karma. I have been posting a lot of articles about "life story rights" lately. Questions of copyright, trademark, rights of publicity and privacy seem to affect every film, play, and television series I advise. So maybe I shouldn't be surprised that there's some dude out there that's pretending to be me.

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Please! Stop Monkeying Around with Photography Law!

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Please! Stop Monkeying Around with Photography Law!

Most of my friends are amateur photographers now, thanks to smartphones and Instagram. And many of them love the hashtag #NoFilter, which always amuses me. Why? Because of the assumption that a photo shot with an iPhone has not already been heavily curated before the button was pushed by the photographer. As this past spring's blue/black vs. white/gold dress debate that raged on the Internet demonstrates, we don't each see color the same way, and a phone's camera does not faithfully replicate the colors we do see, filter or not. 

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Your Life Isn't Protected by Copyright (and Neither is Lenny Kravitz's Junk)

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Your Life Isn't Protected by Copyright (and Neither is Lenny Kravitz's Junk)

What do a Mets game, a Flying Rabbi, and a private part of Lenny Kravitz's anatomy have in common? Lawyers have had entirely too much latitude, without substantial consequence, in making legal claims on their behalf.

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The Great Jewelry Design Ripoff

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The Great Jewelry Design Ripoff

Jewelry design has become a popular entrepreneurial endeavor for artisans who have found a customer base hungry to display a love of creativity. Ironically, American law often seems to find many forms of jewelry design not particularly creative enough, as evidenced by a restrictive approach by the U.S. Copyright Office and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as federal courts. 

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Etsy Liars, Instagram Thieves, and the Art of Law

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Etsy Liars, Instagram Thieves, and the Art of Law

When I was a kid, I was proud of my illustration skills. In the days before Photoshop, I believed art was verisimilitude. Then I went to art school, met painters and sculptors with far more talent than I, and discovered the importance of ideas in art. It would be many years before I would realize that voice and "personal brand"--as obnoxious a term as we've coined in this 21st century--matter as much in the world of artists as ideas and talent. 

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Dr. Startup, or: How I Learned to Stop Complaining and Love the Micropayment

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Dr. Startup, or: How I Learned to Stop Complaining and Love the Micropayment

Did the Internet and technology level the playing field for small-time artists, illustrators, musicians, or filmmakers? On the one hand, it is easier than ever before to become a web celebrity than ever before, and for the creator of creative content to monetize that content.

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Can Infringement on Etsy, CafePress, or Ebay be Considered "Fair Use?"

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Sure, you know that someone registered the trademark to that logo you mock on those t-shirts you sell on CafePress. Or you've crafted a functional sculpture from food packaging that sells like hotcakes on ebay. Maybe you've printed a few lines from a famous song onto a mug and gave it the tag "Beyonce" in your Etsy store. But you can do it, right? It's fair use, right?

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