I'm a lawyer and founder at Robinson Banwatt Professional Corporation in Toronto, working with music, entertainment and tech clients. Email me at paul at rb-law.ca. I play drums in The...
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Can You Really Just Fire Your Drummer?
Can a band really just go fire their drummer whenever they want? The answer, as always, is maybe……
Music Copyright is Irreparably Broken
A while back, I posted about how music copyright developed awkwardly out of a system of laws meant for books. I also explained how and […]
Why I Hate Options in Music Contracts
Management agreements, record deals, publishing agreements – they all share one near-ubiquitous feature: Options. By “options” I mean the ability of one (or both) parties […]
Music Copyright 101, Part One: Why is it So Confusing?
Music copyright is one of the least accessible aspects of music. I find that really frustrating, because I think music should be something everyone can […]
Grants for Music-related Businesses
The City of Toronto Music Office has been doing a great job putting out information about grant opportunities available for musicians and music-related businesses. Here’s […]
Why Your Artist Management Agreement Says Your Manager Won’t Get You Gigs
About 15 years ago, my band signed our first management agreement. I was in law school, and we couldn’t afford a lawyer to look at […]
Bad Behaviour in Recording Agreements
Here’s a quick rant. I’ve been working with a lot of artists lately on their record deals with small labels, and I want to talk […]
A Copyright Mystery – The “Rule of the Shorter Term” and the Public Domain in Canada
This is the kind of law blog post that I dread. I’m about to write about something I’m unsure about. And, if it wasn’t for […]
How Patents Can Make Music Sound Bad (or Good)
*** UPDATE FEB 16, 2022 *** I should acknowledge as of WIndows 11, the AAC codec is natively supported in Windows (hooray!). Also, for an […]