Writers Literary Agent Agreements: What Authors Are Actually Signing — Commission, Term, and the Clauses That Outlive the Deal Getting 'the call' from a literary agent is thrilling — but representation is a contract. A plain-English guide to commission (15% of gross), scope, the agency clause, the 'coupled with an interest' trap, and how to leave.
Filmmakers Talent, Location, and Music Releases: The Clearance Package Every Indie Film Needs Before Delivery No distributor will take your film without E&O insurance, and no insurer approves it without a complete clearance package. A practical guide to talent, location, and music releases, life rights, and the chain of title that makes an indie film deliverable.
Musicians AI Voice Clones and the NO FAKES Act: Protecting Your Voice and Likeness as a Creator An AI track faked Drake and The Weeknd and racked up millions of plays before it was pulled. If your voice or likeness can be cloned, here's the legal toolkit that protects creators today—and what the NO FAKES Act would change.
Hardware Founders Manufacturing and Supply Agreements for Hardware Startups: NRE, Tooling Ownership, MOQs, and the Clauses That Protect Your Product Hardware founders negotiate the unit price and sign the rest. But the manufacturing agreement decides who owns the tooling you paid for, what 'conforming' means, and whether you can ever leave. A clause-by-clause guide to NRE, tooling title, MOQs, warranty, IP/anti-cloning, and your exit.
Musicians Band Partnership Agreements & Split Sheets: The Legal Foundation Every Working Band Skips Two or more musicians sharing in a band form a general partnership by default — equal splits, joint liability, and dissolution on exit baked in. A plain-English guide to split sheets, songwriting vs. master splits, who owns the band name, leaver provisions, and when to form an LLC.
Writers Book Publishing Contracts: What Authors Are Signing Away — and How to Protect What Matters You got the offer. Now comes the part no one prepares you for — understanding what the contract actually says. Here's what traditional publishing agreements cover, what you're giving up, and what you can negotiate before you sign.
Filmmakers Indie Filmmaker Legal Essentials: Entity Formation, Chain of Title, and Music Licensing Most indie films hit legal roadblocks before they see a distributor. Here's how to structure your production, protect your IP, and clear the rights that matter.
Writers The Legal Guide for Newsletter Creators: Copyright, FTC Disclosures, and Privacy Compliance Running a paid newsletter is running a business. Here's what every newsletter creator needs to know about copyright, FTC disclosures, privacy compliance, and platform terms.
Visual Artists Work-for-Hire vs. Licensing in Commercial Art: What Every Artist Should Know Before Signing Independent artists signing commercial contracts face a choice that can permanently affect their copyright: work-for-hire or licensing. Learn the legal difference, how to price each correctly, and which contract red flags to strike before you sign.
Writers Traditional vs. Self-Publishing Contracts: What Every Author Should Know Before Signing Before you sign a publishing contract — traditional or self-published — you need to know what you're actually transferring. This guide breaks down royalties, reversion clauses, copyright fundamentals, and what's actually negotiable in a traditional deal.
Filmmakers Chain of Title for Indie Films: The Document Package Every Distributor Requires Finishing your film and having a film a distributor will accept are two different things. Chain of title problems are among the most common reasons indie films stall at distribution — and they are almost always preventable if documentation is built during production, not after.
Filmmakers Option and Purchase Agreements for Indie Filmmakers: How to Lock Down Your Source Material Before you can make a film based on a book, true story, or someone's life, you need to lock down the rights. Here's how option and purchase agreements actually work — and what to watch for before signing.
Game Studios AI-Generated Assets in Games: Copyright, Ownership, and the Risks Studios Are Walking Into Studios are building games with AI-generated art, audio, and code — but the legal framework hasn't caught up. Here's what the copyright gaps mean for your IP, your deals, and your investors.
Game Studios Steam, Epic, and Itch.io: What Indie Studios Actually Agree To in Distribution Contracts Most developers click through platform distribution agreements without reading them. Steam's 70/30 cut is the detail everyone knows. The unilateral amendment clause, MFN provision, and Valve's right to delist your game are what matter when something goes wrong.
Game Studios Indie Studio Formation and IP: Structuring Your Game Company from Day One Most indie studios ship their first game before signing a single IP assignment agreement — and discover the problem during publisher due diligence. Here's the legal checklist: entity choice, IP assignment, trademarks, contractor agreements, and exit readiness.
Technology, AI, & Digital Innovation AI Training Data and Copyright: Fair Use, Licensing, and Governance for Model Developers Generative AI is colliding with copyright law in real time. Frontier models are trained on enormous, largely scraped corpora, while authors, artists,…
Game Studios Distribution Platform Agreements: What Indie Developers Need to Know About Steam, Epic, and Console Store Terms Steam's Steamworks agreement, Epic's developer terms, and console store contracts impose real legal obligations on indie developers — not just revenue splits. Here's what each platform actually claims, what it can do to your game and account, and what you can push back on.
Hardware Founders Invention Assignment Clauses — What They Actually Claim (And What They Don't) Your employer's invention assignment clause probably claims more than you assume. Here's what the four standard categories actually cover, where state law protects you (and where it doesn't), how the prior inventions schedule works, and what engineers should do before starting any personal project.
Hardware Founders Moonlighting from Arm, NXP, or Samsung Austin — What Your IP Assignment Clause Actually Claims Austin chip engineers sign IP assignment clauses that reach off-hours work. Here's what "related to company business" actually sweeps in, why Texas has no statutory floor like California's Labor Code § 2870, and the hygiene steps to take before starting any side project.
Musicians Label Deal Red Flags: What to Negotiate Before You Sign Taylor Swift's masters, Madonna's 90% touring share, California's broken 7-year rule for musicians: what every artist should fight for before signing a recording contract.
Hardware Founders Hardware Startup Fundraising: What's Different from SaaS Hardware startups need more capital, structured differently, across more rounds than SaaS. This guide covers the fundraising mechanics, investment instruments, non-dilutive capital access, and IP structures that define the hardware financing landscape.
Visual Artists Copyright vs. Trademark for Artists: Which Protection Do You Actually Need? Most artists know copyright protects their work — but not what trademark does differently, or when they need it. Here's the practical breakdown: copyright protects the art, trademark protects the brand, and some marks need both.
Visual Artists Gallery Representation Deals: What Artists Need to Know About Exclusivity, Splits, and Termination Gallery contracts cover more than just commission. Here is what visual artists need to know about exclusivity scope, payment timing, and protecting your work if the relationship ends.
Visual Artists The Visual Artist's AI Opt-Out Guide: What Actually Works in 2026 Three layers of defense — dataset, technical, legal — and which actually work for visual artists in 2026. Concrete steps for Spawning HIBT registration, Glaze cloaking, current AI-crawler robots.txt entries, EU TDMRep, and where DMCA still bites against AI outputs that copy your work.
Hardware Founders Hardware Patent Strategy for Early-Stage Founders: What to File, When, and Why It Matters Before Your Raise Hardware founders face a patent landscape categorically different from software — tighter deadlines, higher stakes at each development stage, and no automatic copyright fallback. What to file, when to file it, and how to build an IP stack that holds up in due diligence.
