Rule of Law

"Business information as a trade secret. A business's internal information can qualify as a trade secret if its disclosure would negatively affect that business's competitivness. For example, the following types of information commonly are considered to be trade secrets because they provide a business with a cometitive edge: information concerning the characteristics of customers, information relevant to the cost and pricing of good, sources of supply, especially if disclosure would divulge the nature of a secret ingredient, books and records of the business, mailing lists and other sales information, customer lists, information regarding new business opportunities, information regarding the effectiveness and performance of personnel, distributors and suppliers, and methods of doing business. On the other hand, business information is not protectible as a trade secret if it can be independently developed with little dificulty. Information that might not generally qualify as a trade secret includes general employee handbooks and personnel policies that discuss the rights and responsibilities of workers based on applicable federal and state laws" (Stim 532-533).
My main concern with the questions and information I have established is to find myself more ready to be able to start a business on my own and feel that I am prepared and not going in it blind.

" Nondisclosure agreements should be used whenever it is necessary to disclose marketing, evaluation, or fiscal backing. Through the conscientious use of non disclosure agreements, trade secrets ccan be distributed to a relatively large number of people without destroying their protected status" (Stim, 555).  Nondisclosure agreements would be extremely important in the business that I want to get into.  Production companies can deal with high end clients and there are secrets to the trade, this would be a great form of protection for a business.  "The right of publicity is the right of a person to prevent the use of his or her name or persona for commercial purposes. Although the right of publicity is commonly associated with celebraties, every person, regarless of how famous, has a right to prevent unauthorized use of his or her name or image to sell products. The right extends beyond the commercial use of a person's name or image and includes the use of any personal element that implies an individual's endorsement of a product, provided that the public can identify the individual based upon the use" (Stim, 464).  Especially in this business, if it become successful, the right of publicity is going to be a very important factor.  One wrong move, could anger the wrong people and than the business would never go anywhere.

"If there is no employment relationship, a work will still be considered a work made for hire if both parties sign a written work-for-hire agreement and the work fits within one of the following categories of works(17 United States Code, Section 101): a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, such as a screenplay, a translation, a supplementary work, a compilation, and instructional text, a test or answer material for a test, and atlas or a sound recording" (Stim, 320). A work for hire agreement is especially important when working in the video production world.  "Attribution, people mistakenly believe that they can use copyrighted material as long as they credit the author. This is not true. For example, providing the author's name for a quotation will not, by itself , excuse someone from a charge of infringement for qualify your use as a fair use" (Stim 214).  Attribution happens quite often in the production business, it is good information to know that nothing is free when it comes to art.