Music and Band Legal Issues and Texas Law

With SXSW coming up in Austin in early March, I thought it was interesting to look at Texas law related to music and intellectual property rights.  Granted, most Copyrights are federal in nature (the Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution dictates this), but there are rights above and beyond the Copyrights.  Rather than fully regurgitate, there is an excellent article that was in the March issue of the Texas Bar Journal.  See that article HERE. One of the things most frequently missed is that the ownership of the music Copyright does not necessarily confer the right to use the artist's name and image, which for those producers can be a trap for the unwary.  Which basically is something that is more words to the wise, be sure to get any agreements related to the production of video and music rights in writing.  This includes you venues out there...just because they played at your restaurant and you recorded it doesn't mean you have the right to post same on Youtube.  If you want to post it, make sure you get that right in an agreement (and perhaps ought to be in your agreement related to payments to the band).