In the world of writing, whether fiction, non-fiction, scripts, plays, poetry and so on, often I have clients who have either affirmatively asked for or just received the unsolicited assistance of others in completing aspects of their creative work.  This simple and well-meaning collaboration raises many, many issues that must be considered and agreed upon before you should allow any other person to participate in the authoring of “your baby.”

One of the most common forms of collaboration in the literary world is the use of what are commonly described as “ghostwriters” who actually write all or portions of your work.  They take your thoughts, ideas, dreams and experiences and put them into words that compel, confuse, educate, and entertain your readers.

Because of the frequency of this type of collaboration, I believe that it is critical to understand some of the main issues of such an arrangement of which you must be aware.

One of the most important to you is the issue of who actually owns the resulting work and the copyright.  I have structured the participation of a ghostwriter such that at the conclusion of the project, either the ghostwriter jointly owns the intellectual property with you, or you own it outright.

The overwhelming preference of my authors is that because it is their idea and money that funds and completes the project, ideally they should own the work when it is completed.  The contract between you and your ghost writer must be specific in this regard in order to maintain control of the copyright ownership thereafter.

Another very important area in which your agreement must be strong and specific is that of the requirement that the ghostwriter not commit any acts of infringement, invasion of privacy or defamation in their preparation of the manuscript.  How horrible would you feel if you found out that the person to whom you had entrusted the writing of your idea had copied portions of the works of others in the preparation of your work?  Or, what if the ghostwriter has maligned another person without knowledge of the repercussions?

It is for this reason that a well-written agreement with a ghostwriter will most certainly include covenants, warranties and representations of the writer that cover your liability in the event that such claims arise in the future. Remember that you are the author and hopefully owner of the work and therefore you are in the direct line of fire of an unhappy person who feels wronged.

One of the reasons that ghost writers do what they do is to become well known as writers in their own right.  It is for them a business in which they earn their livelihood. Therefore, the issue of the credit that they will receive on the completed book is very important to all ghostwriters.  This is one area in which you and the ghostwriter can become very creative.

The agreement about how to credit the ghostwriter range from “By Jonathan The Idea Man with Gloria Jones” making no reference to the fact that Gloria is/was the ghostwriter for this book.  Another common choice is to include the ghostwriter in the book’s acknowledgments at the beginning of the book.

Ideally, the relationship that evolves with your ghostwriter should be strong and you should establish a special synergy that allows the ghostwriter to write in your “voice.”  Therefore, in most circumstances, my clients opt to give full credit to the ghostwriter for their skilled work product and dedication to the project.  The exact verbiage, location, relative size of the credit and so on can be anything that seems to be reasonable as between the two of you.

In these areas, and more, it pays to seek good advice from an attorney who is knowledgeable about such issues.  This is not an area in which to skimp on spending the relatively few dollars necessary in order to tie down ownership, credit, compensation, control, and the many other issues that may arise in this context.

Facebook, the social networking website, is allowing its users to create custom usernames to identify themselves in the URLs for their profile pages. On June 9, 2009, Facebook announced its plan to replace randomly assigned numerical labels in its URLs with user-selected web addresses for personal Facebook profiles pages (e.g., http://www.facebook.com/replinrhoades). Users will be able to find particular Facebook profiles by using individual names as search terms in Facebook searches and internet users will be able to locate these pages by performing Google searches of usernames.

The new Facebook usernames must be at least 5 characters in length and contain only alphanumeric characters. Facebook will not consider requests to register generic usernames such as “restaurants” or “beer”. Username registration opens to Facebook members at 12:00am EDT on Saturday June 13, 2009. Usernames will be registered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Trademark owners who wish to prevent their marks from being registered as new Facebook usernames should act immediately to notify Facebook by completing and submitting an electronic request using Facebook’s online request form available at http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights.  Facebook will only accept requests to protect federally registered trademarks.

To prevent username cyber-squatting, Facebook has temporarily limited eligibility for usernames to members whose Facebook accounts pre-date the public announcement of the new vanity URLs. Username registration for new post-announcement Facebook members will open on Sunday, June 28, 2009.

Facebook has also implemented a process for requesting the removal of infringing usernames should trademark owners fail to notify Facebook of their rights prior to the June 13 deadline.  However, Facebook claims that once a username is set it may not be altered or transferred for any reason. Therefore, if Facebook agrees to remove a username based on a trademark owner’s request, it seems that the username will be permanently unavailable for future use by any other user, including the trademark owner.

Please contact Replin & Rhoades if we can assist in notifying Facebook of your registered trademark or answer any questions about this recent development.

It’s great to get together with fellow musicians and shed. Then you start to get some tunes together and want to gig. All of a sudden, you’re a band! Aren’t there some things you should do before you take the next step?

Starting a band is like starting a business. And every business should start with an agreement. While every venture starts out with good intentions and everyone getting along, things inevitably break down. An agreement can lay out who contributed assets to the business (“that’s my microphone!”), how ownership is divided amongst the members (“I’m the singer so this is my band”), and how decisions are made (unanimous? majority rules?). If the band or business is an LLC, an operating agreement lays out all these details (and more). An operating agreement is absolutely necessary when founding an LLC.

Whether you’re a musician starting a band, a filmmaker embarking on a new project, a designer producing a new line of products, or just about anyone starting any business, make sure you put it all in writing from the very beginning. It saves a lot of headaches and heartache down the road.

Welcome to the blog for Replin & Rhoades, LLC. Our full-service law firm works with individuals and businesses of all kinds and we take particular pride in working with members of the creative arts community.  This practice is commonly known as Entertainment Law.

Our creative arts clients may be filmmakers, musicians, authors, publishers, producers, fashion designers, web developers and any other person or entity that adds to the creative world. We welcome everyone.

As with most blogs, our will take shape as it develops. We hope our readers will find it useful and informative and refer to it often. Some posts will provide information on topical issues, others may report on recent events, and still others may just be for fun. We appreciate your interest in our firm, our website, and our blog, and we welcome your feedback and comments.