Entertainment Law is also called as the Medial Law. It is a general term for the combination of traditional categories of law focusing on providing legal services to the industry of entertainment and media. The primary areas of the Entertainment Law intersect substantially with the conventional and well-known field of intellectual property law.
The practice of Entertainment Law often involves questions related to insurance law, international law, copyright law or the right of publicity, intellectual property, agency, security interests, securities law, immigration, bankruptcy law, labor law, and employment law. These covered laws are usually transaction based that include mediation, negotiation, and drafting contracts. In some scenarios, the transactions may lead to arbitration or litigation.
The Entertainment Law is divided in to sub-categories that are related to the kinds of activities. These activities are based on their specific negotiation strategies, case, customs, rules, production techniques, and trade unions. The first sub-category is the film, which covers many different issues that include trademarks and copyright of general intellectual property, industry negotiation on the distribution of motion picture, trade unions, distributions, post production & production, chain of title, finance, and option agreements. The category also covers issues on talent agreements concerning production designers, composers, actors, film directors, and screenwriters.
The second sub-category of Entertainment Law is the music that includes issues related to music law, general intellectual property, music industry negotiation, synchronization rights, producer agreements, and talent agreements between the composers and musicians.
The television and radio comprise the third sub-category of Entertainment Law. This category involves issues on broadcast regulatory and licensing, general intellectual property, mechanical licenses, and copyrights. The fourth sub-category of the law is theater, which includes issues on co-production agreements, rental agreements, and other performance oriented legal matters.
Multimedia is the fifth sub-category of Entertainment Law. It covers issues on general intellectual property, information technology laws, video game production and development, and software licensing issues. Publishing and print media is the sixth sub-category of the law concerning issues on copyright, general intellectual property, author agreements, models, and advertising.
The Visual Arts and Design is also included as a sub-category of Entertainment Law. It covers issues related to fine arts, moral rights of sculptors on their works in public places, consignment of art works to art dealers, industrial design, and protection of graphic design elements on products. Defamation is also considered as a sub-category of Entertainment Law. It may involve privacy rights, personality rights, slander, and libel.
Majority of the eminent entertainment law schools in the world are found in the entertainment capitals of New York City and California. Among these schools include the UCLA, Stanford Law School, San Diego Law School, and New York Law School. These schools offer classes and exceptional alumni network on their covered fields of entertainment laws. Studying entertainment laws is all about connections in general.
UCLA is the most favorite entertainment laws school by many people especially for the California residents. Aside from the fact that it offers low tuition fee, the school also offers 16 different classes about entertainment laws. Stanford Law School is a powerhouse institution that offers excellent classes for entertainment laws. It is regarded as one of the best law schools in the nation along with the San Diego Law School.