Website with laws/legal advice?
 

I know this forum has a great deal of information to offer. At times it is opionion and other experience also some say it is law and is fact. I am not going to dispute anything I've read, nor doubt it. I am wondering however if anyone knows of a web site that has legal information and laws regarding filming, privacy laws, copyright and any other questions people may have regarding filming. Thanks in advance, I'm sure I'll get a number of answer's. Everyone seem's very knowledgable on this site.

Jason,
We are fortunate to have a number of knowledgable people here including Paul Tauger who just happens to be an Intellectual Property Lawyer and has written many many posts about some of the things you are looking to get info on. He's not writing legal opinion only stating the laws as they are written.

Search on Pauls name and have a large pot of coffee ready, clean your glasses and enjoy reading.

WARNING::::::if you try to read them all in one sitting and try to understand it all, your eyes may very well start to bleed and/or you will begin to babble. Believe me, I've done it :-)

Have fun,
Don

"I am wondering however if anyone knows of a web site that has legal information and laws regarding filming, privacy laws, copyright and any other questions people may have regarding filming."

Would you perform open heart surgery on someone based on information you got off of a website? Then don't get legal advice off a website either - the consequences can be almost as bad if it goes awry. Except for Paul, of course, don't trust advice from anyone you aren't paying, and never, EVER trust advice from a source other than an interactive human being who is licensed.

Peter, I was hoping there was a goverment type site. You know like local and Federal? Not just some yahoo who is in law school trying to impress people. I do see what you are saying though, and agree.

Oh I see, in that case www.copyright.gov is a good place to start. But again, be very wary of coming to conclusions cause the stuff can get very complicated.

Try the Nolo Press.

We have several lawyers here, some don't advertise as much as Paul Tauger does (j/k Paul :)
If anyone else here wants to make their legal backgrounds known (again for some of you), now would be a fine time.

Hi, Jason. The yahoo, here.

First, the government doesn't give legal advice. The Copyright Office doesn't give legal advice. The United States Patent and Trademark Office doesn't give legal advice. Law students don't give legal advice. None of them are allowed to -- that's the law.

Only one species of yahoo gets to give legal advice -- those with a license to practice law, which is to say, yahoos like me.

I've been practicing as an intellectual property lawyer for 12 years. I'm admitted to practice before all the courts in California, as well as all four California United States District Courts. I'm also admitted to practice before the 9th and 11th Circuit Courts of Appeal and the United States Supreme Court. I'm a partner in the Intellectual Property Department of a national law firm (you can do a google search to find out which one if you're interested -- I won't mention them here because I don't speak for them when I post at dvinfo.net), where my practice is intellectual property litigation (copyright and trademark) and licensing. Now, it's true that my practice doesn't involve the film industry (at least not anymore), but I know a couple of things about the applicable laws.

Now, I tell you this, not because I want you to be impressed, but only so that you'll understand that, as good as the internet may be, it's not the be-all and end-all for specialized knowledge.

I hang around here because my hobby is travel videography, and I've learned more from the professionals who post here then I could ever have learned from reading the many websites out there about video production. In exchange for everything I've been given here, I try to give a little back by sharing my expertise, sort of a quid pro quo kind of thing.

So, I hope you'll contribute here, and I'm happy to answer any questions of yours that I can.

Well Dylan, I'm not nearly as experienced as Paul, and I'm only admitted in one set of courts :), but I know enough to tell people not to get legal advice from websites, and that's pretty much the only advice I feel comfortable giving on an Internet forum. :)

Of course if anyone wants to have academic discussions about IP law, I'm game. Having just finished law school last year I love getting into pointless intellectual debates. :)