“CALLING ALL MEDIA FOLK! HERE’S A BIG BOOK OF CONTRACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ALL ABOUT
You may not directly use it. But if you work in the media – including the web – in any capacity you should know it’s out there. And if your advisers don’t know about it, tell them. We refer to a large format, but very handy volume from the very reliable legal publishing arm of Sweet & Maxwell Thomson Reuters.
The title ‘The Media Contracts and Business Contracts Handbook’ aptly summarises what’s in the book and what it can do for you. Briefly, it offers a rather vast range of precedents -- expertly drafted contracts, licences, acquisition and distribution agreements and so on -- for just about every imaginable contract you are likely to encounter in just about any business situation.
All contracts are written in plain language, expertly drafted, ready to use and accompanied by useful commentary. Any of the contracts can be used as a starting point for adaptation to your specific requirements – very much easier to do via the accompanying CD ROM which really does save time.
‘We often find,’ say the authors, ‘that even the structure and general content of an agreement can be of great assistance to an individual who is initially faced with a blank screen and a tight deadline’.
This is reassuring stuff from specialist legal advisers (counsel and solicitor advocates) who demonstrate an understanding of and insight into, the often horrendous pressures of media life. If used as intended, this volume is nothing if not a great time saver and deadline beater with the requisite unbeatable authority.
Herein is standard wording for -- some examples here: a website commissioning agreement…television presenter’s contract…publishing agreement between publisher and author…television advertisement agreement…and almost a hundred more.
And as digital media now permeate every aspect of business, there is much new material in this new edition, including new B2B contracts such as Asset Purchase Agreement, Joint Venture, Founding Shareholders Agreement and Trade Mark User Licence.
Interestingly, this highly regarded reference work has gone through four editions since 1989. Since then, media types have seen changes more profound and numerous than in any other sector of business, notably in the matter of the ever-expanding Internet, which didn’t even exist in 1989 as a global media entity.
The digital revolution, has created ‘a new generation of legal and finance executives, say the authors,’ who quite rightly expect lawyers and contract draftsmen to keep pace with the speed and levels of responsiveness expected in the digital age.’
So, there’s a continuing need for this established and authoritative resource that most media lawyers, agents, publishers, copyright owners and legions of media-based organisations simply couldn’t -- or shouldn’t --live without.”
