California Entertainment Legal Questions

It depends whether the new owner bought the actual business, and with it, took on its contracts and debts and goodwill, or if it is just in the same space. It also depends how old the gift certificate is and the terms of the gift certificate. Gift certificates are meant to be used within a month or so, for reasons just like this.... Read More

There are many social media services, and you do not say which one. Each social media type has a terms of service that you should read. You are probably not allowed to post a video that shows any person besides yourself unless you have permission from that person. Since you definitely do not have permission to post a video of these people, then it is illegal for you to post. It sounds like you think your cabinets are damaged. If the cabinet is actually damaged, you should ask the company to come out and do a touch up, such as sanding or stain, etc., to make it so it is not noticed.... Read More

You will need to get a license from the entity that is responsible for licensing the professional artist's version of the song as well as the underlying song. The professional artist may not be willing to allow you to use his work without specific permission as this is well beyond a cover of the song.... Read More

What you should do immediately is change your password so she no longer has access on her phone. If your personal items have been posted anywhere online, file reports with those services to have the items removed. What the girl did may be a federal crime of intercepting electronic messages and making those public. You may want to have a lawyer explain this to her and have her destroy all copies off everything she intercepted. She needs to learn and grow up and this sounds like the perfect time for her to learn that lesson. You also need to learn to be much more careful with security over your accounts. It is usually a mistake to lend or borrow a personal phone or computer to access emails or social media. Get online and read about that and develop habits that you will use for the rest of your life. If you are being bullied by this girl and her friends, talk to a teacher or counselor today.... Read More

You probably have a blanket license for public broadcast rights from ASCAP, BMI & SESAC. Check to make sure you do, and then check to make sure ASCAP/BMI/SESAC (whichever you're a member with, usually both ASCAP and BMI) have it covered in their catalog. If not, you'll need to track down the copyright holder (usually the publisher) for permission and to negotiate rates. Permission from the artist may or may not be sufficient you need permission from the composer/song-writer. Usually this permission flows through a publisher, but if you're dealing with an indie band doing a cover of a song by an indie composer, make sure you talk to the composer. Hopefully, you've got the ASCAP/BMI blanket subscription and will be covered through that this is the usual situation, but alternative radio is getting more and more off the charts as music becomes easier to make and more artists go independent. It's always worth checking copyright.gov to see who is the registered owner of the music, if registered. But even if unregistered *there is still a copyright*, and you need to abide by it. Be sure, not sued.... Read More

It is entirely possible and very likely that neither the restaurant manager nor the waiter were aware of the mistake until you brought it to their attention. As long as the restaurant corrects the problem immediately, you wont suffer any harm and thus have no claim for damages. Kudos to you for keeping such a close eye on your account.... Read More

It depends what kind of contract it is. You should talk with a lawyer. It sounds like you are mixing up two things choice of law written into the contract, and whether a firm not registered in the state can do business in the state. If you mean the choice of law of the contract is for California law, usually that does not affect the validity of the contract, but simply states that if the contract goes to court, that the court will interpret the contract under the laws of California. The laws of a certain state may be chosen for any number of reasons, including that the work will take place in that state or that the state has a good body of law in that subject area. For example, many contracts in music will be written with the choice of law as California since California has a good body of well-developed law on the topic of music. However, if you are talking about some sort of contract for services where the company might be required to be registered or licensed in California, such as disaster recovery or building, then the contract may not be valid on that basis. That is why you need to show the contract to a lawyer.... Read More

Any owner or manager of a private establishment can refuse service to anyone for any reason as long as the reason doesn't deal with a protected status such as race, age, ethnicity, gender, etc. In addition, a drinking establishment and/or the drinks server can be held liable for the criminal actions of a patron who leaves the bar dangerously drunk and then hits someone while driving drunk.... Read More

Height, weight and other obviously visible statistics should not pose a privacy issue. A person might have a reasonable expectation of privacy for some things, however. For example, the heat-vision mode of the short-lived Sony video cameras from the 90s that would allow you to see a naked outline of a person from that person's heat map. Privacy issue. Weight and height? Not really you can reasonably guess at those things just from seeing someone in public. Likewise, a motion sensor to detect when someone is present is fine. Sounds like you have a neat product on the hoof. Go for it! Take care.... Read More

The California Seller of Travel Law applies to all purchases made from sellers who are located in California, as well as purchases by persons located in California from vendors who sell or offer to sell from locations outside the state. You can email the department and ask your questions at sellers.travel at doj.ca.gov If you are located in a different state, that state may also have Seller of Travel laws.... Read More

TVs that are described as LED TVs are actually LCD TVs. The LEDs are used as backlighting, rather than using CCFL. So your TV is probably actually an LCD with LED backlighting. I'm a lawyer who went to Radio/ TV/ Film/ Journalism graduate school. I learned about TV screens there, not in law school.... Read More

The right of privacy someone has is still very hard to predict from a court of law. When anyone writes a book, they may borrow from their own group of friends and family. You need not contact them ever. Using enough information than any one or more person might be identified, may give rise to some legal issues. It is impossible to say now. What you say be libelous or otherwise actionable depending on too much a lawyer working with you might need to know.... Read More

Yes you can. Here are some other answers to common questions for photographers. 'You can't take my photo without permission' . Oh yes you can, usually. Point to the CCTV cameras and wave, they never asked either. Of course it is perfectly understandable that individuals may feel singled out and perhaps intimidated, frightened or angry not to be in control, but it's not a legal point. * *'You have violated my copyright'*. This is in no sense true. There is no copyright in the human face or form, and copying would anyway mean cloning them, not creating an image. An image of a person is copyright of the photographer. 'You have violated my privacy'.* Legally this is unlikely to be true. There is no right to privacy in public places as a rule. There is a right to privacy in private places and in public places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy (eg public toilets), but how extensive this is depends on circumstances. In private places that are open to the public, permission of the landowner is usually sufficient to be able to photograph visitors and staff. However a recent court case upheld a right to eat a meal in a restaurant in privacy even though the restaurant owner had consented to the photography, because in the court's view it was a customer's normal expectation not to be photographed there. If in doubt, this is probably the question to ask yourself. * *'You have violated my human rights'*. Police seem to sometimes object to being photographed on the grounds that their 'Human Rights' are being violated. This really means the same thing as 'privacy' and there is none in the street as the presence of CCTV and police photographers shows. The Human Rights Act 1998 recognises a human right to expect privacy wherever privacy is normal, eg in the home. So photographs taken where privacy may be expected require permission of the subject. EG photographs taken from public places that depict someone within their home in a situation where they expect privacy, for instance through a window using a telephoto lens, /will/ be actionable. * *'You are harassing me'.* Photography can indeed constitute harassment, but for an act to constitute harassment requires deliberate acts of harassment on at least 2 separate occasions. The complainant may then seek a restraining order from the court. Harassment is potentially an issue for paparazzi in their pursuit of celebrities, but equally a restraining order has been used to suppress inconvenient photography. 'You need a model release' . Model releases are not necessary for anything except photographs to be used for commercial purposes. For editorial or artistic purposes they have no relevance unless you intend defaming the subject and need them to make a contractual agreement not to sue you for libel. If you intend selling the image for marketing or advertising use that implies endorsement by the subject, then yes, you need a model release (or rather, the advertiser does). 'You have violated data protection law' . Superficially this seems correct as the Data Protection Act does indeed prohibit the recording of data that identifies an individual. A photograph certainly qualifies and the DPA certainly applies to CCTV monitoring, ID photos etc. However the DPA Part 1 Section 3 specifically exempts as a 'special purpose' photographs or other data recorded for journalism, or for artistic or literary purposes.... Read More