MS contract law, entertainment law

Your rights to as a member of the band are governed by your Band Agreement Contract (which is probably a kind of partnership) and your contract with your record label. There probably "leaving band member" provisions that discuss how and under what terms you can leave. Typically you retain no rights to the band name, although you may be able to refer to yourself as "formerly a member of . . . ." Also typically, you would get your proportionate share of the activities you participated in before this incident happened, such as a share of the artist's royalties of any record that has been released, although this may depend on your touring obligations to promote any newly released records.

As for your rights to songs you've co-written, you or your song publisher/owner should have had those copyrighted, so your shares in those songs and the proportionate income from them would be protected. If you already signed a publishing agreement along with your recording agreement with our label, you may have already granted the rights to use those songs, and your recording agreement presumably would have also granted the label the rights to use those "controlled" compositions. If the songs have already been released and published, you would not be able to prevent others from using them under a compulsory license, but at least you'd get your share of payment for use.

Disclaimer: Please note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on, since each situation is fact specific, and it is impossible to evaluate a legal problem without a comprehensive consultation and review of all the facts and documents at issue. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Your case appears to have multiple issues:

1) Breach of contract: Most band agreements should have some clause regulating band mates' behavior that would hurt the image of the band, however, your case will be governed by the contract you executed. Almost every band agreement has some sort of band dissolution clause which outlines the procedure of how band business will be wrapped up, and under which circumstances a member of the band is allowed to quit the band. You will have to show an attorney a copy of that contract.

2) Copyright infringement: Again, your case will be governed by the contract you executed. If the contract assigns your copyright rights to the band, then you might not have exclusive rights to those lyrics - however, you may have retained some rights, such as a non-exclusive license, depending on the contract language. I would suggest that you register any and all lyrics, music, and compositions you created with the Library of Congress at www.copyright.gov, and contacting an entertainment lawyer to review this contract.

3) Possible restraining order: In California, some instances of threats can be sufficient enough for a court to issue a restraining order against the person who made those threats from contacting you or coming within a certain distance from you. It depends on exactly what was said and the circumstances surrounding the incident.

I hope this helps. Of course, the above cannot suffice for legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is made over this system.

Sincerely,

Tomas M. Flores, Esq.