Podcasts

I decided to do my blog on the 3 podcasts. The first podcast is Episode 29 from Entertainmentlawupdate.com. The lawyers in the podcasts are Gordon Firemark, Tamara Bennet, and Erin Jacobson. In this podcast they talk about various issues within entertainment industry. The very first issue that they discuss about is the 360 deals. They first discuss the artists that have had problems with the 360 deals. The lawyers have many years of experience each doing different things within the entertainment industry. Erin Jacobson (who is a guest on the podcast) knows the 360 deals probably like the back of her hand.

The second podcast (Episode 30) I am also doing from entertainmentlawupdate.com. This podcast is even more informative and helpful to my business because they talk about Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com. Young and independent filmmakers use both Kickstarter and Indiegogo to help fund and make their films. The lawyers talk about a law that has been recently changed to allow people who were attempting to gain money for a project be able to go to anyone rather than having only families or friends help out. This is beneficial to many filmmakers and business starters such as myself because we can have everyone help. There is however one downside to this (sort of). If you happen to raise over half a million dollars then you must have an audited financial statement. Since I am horrible at math that can be a bad thing but thankfully you have people (accountants) that you can hire to help with financial statements.

The third and final podcast (Episode 26) is also done by entertainmentlawupdate.com. In this podcast they talk about the SOPA act. SOPA stands for “Stop Online Privacy Act. The act is to stop copyright infringement. I only know about the act mainly from what I have read online. However the lawyers have given me insight into from the law side of it and how it might affect the Internet. Overall all of the podcasts have been very informative and enlightening because I had a chance to see what lawyers think rather than what I think.


http://www.entertainmentlawupdate.com/

http://themusicindustrylawyer.com/

Online piracy

For Hollywood it has become a battle to fight against online piracy. When Napster began it changed not only the music industry but also the film industry. Everyone everywhere could now download one of their favorite musicians songs or even their albums. While it took the music industry a while to fight Napster and online piracy they won in the end. Now with Hollywood it has become a little bit more difficult due to online piracy overseas. A few years ago when I was in the United States Navy we went to a country called Montenegro.  While I was there I came across a shopping area that had souvenirs you could buy. I saw many pirated DVD’s one of them including Spider-Man 3 which had not even come out in the states yet. I was shocked to see it out and yet tempted to buy it even though I would see it soon. Piracy overseas is harder to control due to varying laws of different countries. However earlier this year the government shut down and seized Mega Upload’s assets. With the shutdown of this “file sharing” site it has become a win for Hollywood and the government in the fight for online piracy. However that is only a few of the sites out there. The NFL managed to shutdown some sites prior to the Superbowl because of all the money they would lose. Worrying about a sporting event such as that is a good thing but there are other sites that make a profit from TV shows. If I wanted to watch a certain show but I did not have cable then all I would have to do is wait a few hours, look online for said show and then voila there is the show free for me to watch. Fighting online piracy will not be easy but I believe that with more strict laws for overseas countries it can be fought and won.

http://gizmodo.com/megaupload/

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/steveorjoey/news/?a=41001

http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-on-bittorrent-110207/

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa51834.000/hfa51834_0.htm