The world of media and technology has merged to present new opportunities for artist and production companies to reach a larger audience. At the same time it is the responsibility of the artist and Verax Media to practice online courtesy for the sake of public image. How you conduct business says a lot about who you are, but what happens if someone is stalking you via text messages? There was a case where Justin Bieber was constantly being texted by an individual named Kevin numerous times. Justin, being tired of the texts and calls tweeted the individual’s number, which resulted in about 26,000 phone calls and texts. (Entertainmentlawupdate.com 2011) This caused the individual to shut off his phone and change the number to wave off the unwanted attention. This simply was not justified since Justin Bieber could have had his lawyer call and let the gentleman know to stop calling or texting. This method of revenge was childish and could have resulted in a civil or criminal claim. Whether or not a case could have been presented is not the issue but Verax Media and the artist we represent must conduct ourselves in an appropriate manner whether online or in person.
As the Internet continues to evolve and online media companies experience growth we must be aware of new tactics that we might encounter while expressing our view or blogging. In a recent case Righthaven LLC, which is a copyright holding company, owns copyrights from its partner newspapers and seeks to sue website owners and bloggers who use their content without permission. This method is called copyright trolling and is a new method we must be aware of. If we decided to copy news article that was owned by Righthaven LLC and blog about it we could be sued. But recent court cases have ruled against Righthaven in a case against Democratic Underground. (Entertainmentlawupdate.com 2011) In the case of free speech we see that free speech will cost if we copy a news article without permission New trends and methods will develop as online content continues to grow and we must remain aware and protect ourselves from potential liabilities.
So as we continue to move from infancy to publishing reviews or discussing articles from other publishers we must ensure that we are gaining permission. Copyright infringement is an area that we must be aware of whether or not we are doing it for profit or not. We can be liable for copyright infringement simply from purchasing a website that was built for us and used images that were not properly cleared. (Legaltalknetwork.com 2011) Since we are a media company we are now aware of areas of concern and must conduct due diligence to ensure that we will not be held liable. The future holds a great future for Verax Media but at the same time a learning curve that will dictate our success and longevity within the industry.
Reference:
Entertainmentlawupdate.com 2011 Episode 13 Aug 2010 Copyrights, trademarks, fair use and net profit suits retrieved on December 18, 2011 from http://www.entertainmentlawupdate.com/2010/08/episode_13/
Entertainmentlawupdate.com 2011 Episode 23 Aug 2011 Monkeying Around with Copyright Law retrieved on December 18, 2011 from http://www.entertainmentlawupdate.com/?powerpress_pinw=771-podcast
Legal Talk Network 2011 Entertainment Law and the challenges of Celebrities retrieved on December 18, 2011 from http://legaltalknetwork.com/?powerpress_pinw=6993-podcast
