Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1367665
Why aren't recording artists protected by California's Seven-Year Statute? In 1987, the recording industry lobbied to have the Seven-Year Statute amended to include special protection for the record labels at the expense of recording artists. As a result of this amendment, recording artists are effectively excluded from the protection of the Seven-Year Statute. The 1987 amendment provides that if an artist seeks the shelter of the Seven-Year Statute, the artist is liable for damages to the label, including lost profits on undelivered albums. And the amount of damages the artist owes does not take into account the profits the label has already made from the artist; any delay in delivering albums caused by the label or whether the label has even committed to any undelivered albums. It is unfair that the labels used their power to make recording artists the only Californians excluded from the protection of the Seven- Year Statute. Why do we need the FAIR Act? Contract terms that hold actors and recording artists off the market, sometimes for years at a time, inhibit an artist's ability to work and earn a living in what is many times a short career window. The FAIR Act sets a maximum length of time that actors and recording artists can be held off the market by these onerous provisions. If the employer does not exercise the option and work cannot be completed in a timely manner, the actor or recording artist can terminate the agreement, freeing them to take other work. For recording artists, it restores the original intent of the Seven-Year Statute: to protect all Californians from being stuck in long-term contracts with onerous terms. The FAIR Act repeals the unfair amendment from the 1980s that requires artists to write a check to their labels if the artists want to terminate their contracts under the Seven-Year Statute. It also limits the time in which the label can exercise its unilateral right to extend the contract for subsequent albums, freeing artists to decide how to release music to their fans. Can't actors and recording artists just individually negotiate better contract terms? If only it was so simple. SAG- AFTRA has reviewed artists' contracts with all of the major companies in both industries. In television, options and exclusivity provisions are standard in all of the television actor contracts SAG-AFTRA has reviewed. They are terms that not even the most recognizable actors have the power to negotiate away completely. In music, because of the special provision the record companies inserted into the Seven-Year Statute in 1987, even successful artists do not have the same leverage as the labels to renegotiate their long-term contracts during the term. When labels renegotiate to improve some Continues on page 81