Starting an independent label, I will most likely have to protect myself from issues of liability. After doing some research, it seems a very common liability faced are those surrounding copyright laws.
One example of this is the dispute between Rick Ross and the group LMFAO. At one point, LMFAO had a similar phrase to that of a Rick Ross song “Every day I’m hustling” in their own song and on merchandising. Though LMFAO had “every day I’m shuffling,” Rick Ross claimed it was an obvious attempt to build off the success he had created. It was decided that the merchandising was not found violating any copyright. The fact was, there is no way to copyright the line “Every day I’m hustling” when you take it away from a melodic and musical components.
Another example of a copyright infringement case is that between Jack Urbont and Ghostface Killah. Urbont created music for “The Marvel Super Heroes” show in the 1960’s, which Ghostface later used portions of to sample in a song of his. Urbont filed a lawsuit against Ghostface which lasted three years, after many attempts to deliver a complaint about the issue to the defendant. Urbont won the case and found it a fair outcome.
This goes to show that there are many situations you can get yourself caught up in with regards to copyright. Another liability would be the breach of a contract.
An example of this could be the situation between Morgan Creek, and Furla Oasis. There was a long-term agreement set in place between the two production companies regarding a co-production they were working on based off the late Tupac Shakur. Without the approval of Emmitt/Furla’s production company, Morgan Creek selected a lead actor, set a budget and a production schedule. When contracts like this are breached it can put a very big strain on the project, and could even waste a lot of money that has been invested into it.
There are many ways to prevent liabilities from taking your business down. My plan to protect my business is to continue to educate and research about my industry. If I continue to educate myself I will know the laws better, and be able to stay within the correct boundaries. If I can continue to research about lawsuits or disputes within my industry I can avoid the mistakes other companies are making. I will also make sure to copyright all of my work, to protect the investments I make into the company and other artists. Any contracts signed between other employees, or artists would be carefully analyzed to make sure there will be no breaching or disputes with the contract in the future.
