On Civil Disobedience, Drones, Street Art, and Being Bold

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I enjoy seeing people using art and technology to make change. Reconciling that desire with my oath to uphold the law isn't easy and I struggle with it constantly. I think the first step is knowing what the law is and what your rights are. Only then can you push back effectively. Whether or not he consulted with an attorney, KATSU certainly knows what he faces every time he goes outside with a spray can. That knowledge is the difference between art that matters and art that’s just taking up space. That’s the difference between being bold and being reckless. KATSU decided that saying something, knowing that he could go to jail for it, is more important than saying nothing and being safe.

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A Brief Review of Extremely Important Matters: Release Forms, Drones, and Other Miscellany

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My latest Cinema Law column for Moviemaker Magazine is out and deals with whether or not to get waivers from background people and passers-by when they walk through your shot. I won't give it all away here (you have to go to the article to hear what I have to say), but I will say this: you probably don't need to be as diligent as I used to be back in my days as a young producer. Head over to Moviemaker Magazine to check it out in full!

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How Does Mad Men Get Away With Publicly Badmouthing McCann Erickson?

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Devotees of Mad Men, a.k.a. The Greatest TV Show Of All Time, will know what I mean by that headline. The show has never been shy about casting McCann Erickson, a real life ad agency, in an unsympathetic light. For years, McCann was the major rival for our struggling protagonists; in an earlier season, Don Draper, Roger Sterling, and Bert Cooper started their own agency just to get out from McCann's clutches. And now that McCann finally bought and dissolved SC&P this season, we get to see how unpleasant it is from the inside as our favorite ad men and women adapt to life there with great difficulty. But if you saw last week's episode and Joan's treatment at the hands of the lecherous Ferg Donnelly and cruel Jim Hobart, you know the show is no longer interested in treating McCann with cool indifference; McCann is now the villain. Full Stop.

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Marvel's Daredevil Gets Young Attorneys Right

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My problem with TV lawyers extends beyond my thin skin. I find those portrayals to be wildly incorrect, bearing little resemblance to what I see in the mirror every day or out in the real world with my colleagues. Lawyers are just people, after all, not robots or monsters. Too often on TV they’re slimy dirtballs or driven idealists. They’re used as the butt of jokes or as obstacles the hero has to overcome. On the rare occasion humanity is allowed to poke through, it’s often to decry the awfulness of the profession or the corruption in the judicial system. What Daredevil gets right is that for many of us, it’s not like that.

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On Registering Your Film's Copyright Before Festival Submission and Drones

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Submitting your film to a festival can be one of the most nerve-racking experiences a filmmaker can have. Believe me I know. In my latest Cinema Law column over at MovieMaker Magazine, I discuss the importance of protecting your copyrighted film before anyone can see it and how that can give you peace of mind. Here's a brief snippet from the article, which you can read in full by heading over here.

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Why J.K. Rowling Should Walk Away From Harry Potter Forever

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Why J.K. Rowling Should Walk Away From Harry Potter Forever

The other day, J.K. Rowling gave an interview with Matt Lauer about her charity Lumos and mentioned she probably wouldn't write another story about Harry and the gang, although she wouldn't foreclose the opportunity altogether. I don't know whether Rowling will ever return to Harry Potter but I do know that she shouldn't. In fact, I think she should relinquish all rights to the Potterverse before she messes it all up.

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Trademark Registration Is Not Easy And You're Going To Hate It (But It'll Be Worth It)

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Unlike copyright registration, registering a trademark is supposed to be expensive and arduous because they don’t want just anyone doing it. A registered mark is a legitimate business asset, and the more profitable your business becomes, the more profitable your trademark becomes. You have to think of registration as a capital investment… not that dissimilar from buying equipment, inventory, or office space.

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Avoid Legalese In Your Contracts, Live A Happier Life

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Lawyers think that because they went through expensive and grueling training (and law school is expensive and grueling, make no mistake), they need to create a barrier between themselves and you, the client, to justify all that they went through. So they invent obscure, arcane, and impenetrable language to create that barrier. Worse yet, they've been doing it for so long that everyone thinks that contracts and other documents used in business have to be written that way in order to be legally binding. 

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MovieMaker Magazine Article #2: Wiretapping and Phone Calls In Reality TV And Documentaries

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MovieMaker Magazine Article #2: Wiretapping and Phone Calls In Reality TV And Documentaries

If you're a documentary or reality TV producer, the chances that you've filmed your on-air talent making a phone call is somewhere between 99 and 100%, which means that, whether you know it or not, you're engaging in wiretapping. What are your obligations? Can you use the audio? Do you need to get permission from both parties or just your talent? Well, my latest MovieMaker Magazine article is out today and answers those questions.

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Why Experts Are Necessary

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Why Experts Are Necessary

And that’s why we have experts testify, isn’t it? Because two reasonable lay persons can come to different conclusions about a thing, and that without expert testimony, the issue would be unresolvable? According to the Rules of Evidence Advisory Committee,”[a]n intelligent evaluation of facts is often difficult or impossible without the application of some scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge."

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