Music Row Lawyer (C. Stephen Weaver)

Who Owns the Company Social Media Accounts?

    Regardless of the type business you are engaged in, as an employer specific action should be taken to protect your valuable assets.  Social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) are among those assets.  A company’s social media accounts are becoming viewed as more important and valuable in the case of company acquisitions and mergers, stock valuation and due diligence for financial transactions.  The purchaser, investor, etc. is going to want to know who owns the social media accounts and see written proof if the company claims this ownership.  The question is typically whether the employee who creates the account and is the primary user is the owner or whether the employer owns the account.

There has been recent litigation over the matter of ownership of social media accounts and no doubt there will be more.  Examples are Maremount v. Susan Fredman Design Group (employee starts marketing blog for company – employee on sick leave – employer assumes employee’s social media identity and continues blog – employee sues); Phonedog v. Kravitz (former employee refuses to surrender twitter account to employer); TEKsystems v. Horizontal Integration (employer-employee dispute over ownership of LinkedIn account).

And the moral is . . . clarify ownership of social media accounts in employment agreements and company policy manuals.  While most employers today understand the importance of intellectual property, these and similar clauses in employment agreements need to specifically address ownership of social media accounts.

The Passing of a Friend - Finis Price

I know of no better way to tell you about my friend Finis Price than to direct you to the tribute posted by another friend, Ben Stevens, at his popular blog, TheMacLawyer.  I got to know Finis at MILO Fest and through email correspondence.  MILO Fest is an annual gathering of Mac using attorneys.  I was with Finis Thursday at the Tennessee Bar Association Tech Seminar.  Finis has come to Nashville and participated as a speaker for the past two years.  He and I (mostly "he") led the Mac sessions for the last 2 hours of the day on Thursday.  When I left him packing up his stuff we talked about when we would see each other again next and joked about whether or not his wife, Heather, was going to let him go to the ABA Tech show this year.  :)  I met Heather for the first time yesterday.  Finis passed away Thursday night. Finis freely gave to the legal community, both as a speaker and to many of us one-on-one as a friend.  I can honestly say that I am a better lawyer be cause of Finis Price.  Rest in pease Finis.  You will be missed by many.

TUNECORE COMPETES WITH ASCAP, BMI AND SESAC ONLINE

 TuneCore has now formed a Songwriter Publishing Administration Services which it claims will by-pass traditional Performing Rights Societies (PROs) and speed payment to writers and artists.  All this for a $49.99 set up fee plus 10% of the funds collected.  Actually, the TuneCore website says that the $49.99 is a “special limited time offer.”  I guess that means after the “limited time” the set up fee will increase.  At the present time you must be a TuneCore distribution client to sign up for the new service.  But TuneCore says plans are to make the service available to any songwriter.

According to this article at hypebot.com Tunecore's new Service will (a) globally register copyrights, (b) collect money that is due, (c) protect and police the copyrights and (d) issue licenses.

Although it is not absolutely clear at the TuneCore website, it is my understanding that the new service is not intended to replace ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the area of collection of performance fees from traditional radio, live performance venues, juke boxes, etc.  TuneCore will be operating in collection from the online world, significantly, from digital streaming of music.  This from the TuneCore website:  “We are not replacing ASCAP, BMI, SESAC for collecting money from jukeboxes, radio, venues, etc. But we are going to step in where there is a lack of efficiency and effort to get songwriters paid. Artists can be members of ASCAP/BMI/SESAC and have TuneCore perform its service as well.”  (Ahem . . . "Artists" may not join ASCAP/BMI/SESAC unless those artists are also songwriters or publishers.)

I am curious about how this will work in lieu of the traditional PROs membership agreements.  For example, can you pick and choose what markets BMI will collect from and exclude others?  Maybe.  If any reader knows the legal contractual answer please let me know in the comments section.  In the meantime, I will look for the answer myself.

Obama Administration Supports Creators and Content Owners

    Last year the Obama administration sent a White Paper to Congress which, among other things, suggested that legislation be enacted to emphasize that illegal file sharing is a felony in certain circumstances.  Apparently the intention is to either create new legislation or somehow encourage enforcement of the criminal provisions of the existing Copyright Act.  Rarely is there criminal prosecution under the copyright act.  Normally only in cases of mass organized piracy and bootlegging.  Moses Avalon makes the comment in his latest blog that “it seems like the Fed is ready to level the playing field between America’s newest major industry—Internet technology--and one of its oldest—intellectual property, as Obama sets to put an end to piracy and torrent “streaming” of music.”

    Moses doesn’t mention that in the same White Paper the Obama Administration also endorses the Performance Rights Act which would provide a right of public performance for Sound Recording copyrights.  This is the right (non-existent in the U.S.) which would require that radio stations and others pay a royalty to the creators and owners of sound recordings in addition to their current payments to the creators of musical compositions.  Whether or not this recommendation to Congress will have any effect we do not know – but as Kevin Goldberg states in his law firm's blog, “as endorsements go, this is a pretty big one.”

    Any thoughts about this dear readers?

 

 © C. Stephen Weaver 2011