Likeness Rights and Digital Resurrection

People in the entertainment business (and everyone else) have been reading the news that the late actor James Dean was cast in an upcoming film project. Dean, who died in 1955, will be digitally resurrected through CGI technology. Dean - well, not exactly James Dean, but the likeness of James Dean - will “act” in an upcoming film that I’m not even going to name because of my personal aversion to this.

Many people, not just film industry people, are expressing their displeasure with this. I am one of them. We have seen this before, with Disney’s use of the likenesses of the late Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher in the film Rogue One. I wrote about that extensively here.

From a legal standpoint, there are two important questions: 1) How did this happen? and 2) How can people control their likenesses after death?

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Employment Law Update: Independent Contractor or W2 Employee?

To determine whether a worker is a W2 employee vs. an independent contractor, the IRS looks at several factors, but the most important factor is the amount of control the employer exerts over the worker’s behavior.

What this means is whether the employer directs or controls how the worker does the work. A worker is an employee when the business has the right to direct and control the worker. The business does not have to actually direct or control the way the work is done – as long as the employer has the right to direct and control the work.

The behavioral control factors fall into several categories:

  • Type of instructions given;

  • Degree of instruction;

  • Evaluation systems; and

  • Training.

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Tuk's Rules, Ep.20: Legislative Update on PA House Bill 561

PA House Bill 561 is a tremendously dangerous piece of legislation that has passed the PA House 115-12. This Bill - if passed in its current form - will prohibit liquor licensees (hotels, bars, restaurants) from paying young musicians who are performing there. Watch the video below for more detail. This Bill is moving VERY quickly through the legislative process.

CALL TO ACTION:

  1. Find your PA Legislator by clicking here.

  2. Call and email your PA Senator to object to the nonpayment of performers.

IN THE NEWS: Bryan Tuk's Editorial in The Pittsburgh Current on PA HB561

You can click here to read Bryan’s editorial in The Pittsburgh Current. Below is an excerpt:

While performing for an audience can be a thrill, it is also a job that requires professional musicians to work very hard in order to make a living.  

The economics of the local music business aren’t pretty either.  The money that is offered most local musicians for your average gig at a bar or hotel would shock people if they knew.

With all of these pressures in mind, seemingly out of left field, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a Bill recently that will make the economic life of the professional musician much, much more difficult.

This odious piece of legislation is House Bill 561.   

HB561 allows liquor licensees (hotels, bars, restaurants) to hire minors to perform as musicians, but the same bill expressly prohibits any payment to those performers for their services.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The language of the Bill actually forbids payment to minors even though they are working at the establishment.