JUST SAY'n: Being an INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR is different than working at a fast food restaurant. In the latter, the employee shows up to work at a certain time and punches in a time clock. Their breaks and lunch periods are strictly monitored and the employer can basically terminate their contract for substandard performance or, whatever depending upon how much tenure the individual has.
Being an INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR is much different. There is an agreed upon contract to go into a series of ventures that require BOTH PARTIES to perform certain tasks to insure project success. The hiring entity does not OWN the sub-contractor, and has the obligation of doing all that is necessary to hold up their end of the AGREEMENT to make sure that the SUBCONTRACTOR's creative efforts are not wasted.
Looking at this situation with Sony and Kevin Hart, it's clear that Sony Execs are in violation of their portion of the agreement to insure the success of the agreed upon series of movies with Hart. They don't OWN Hart, but rather they're offering a platform from which he may produce, distribute and profit from HIS creative Genius. Sony is doing exactly what was threatened when their email conversations about Hart and many other blacks were "leaked". In the conversations an exec called Hart a "money hungry whore" and threatened to shut down future promotion of his upcoming releases.
In looking at this situation, I'm reminded of the spat that Micheal Jackson had with Sony Records who worked out a deal with Jackson's attorney to steal the rights of Jackson's Invincible masters so as to delay the release date to Micheal thus preventing him from promoting his own material and keeping all the profits.
Micheal was able to get out of his contract by proving a conflict of interest, in regards to the attorney, but also in proving that Sony would actually benefit if his career faltered and could abscond his music catalog at a reduced price.
After Jackson's death, his estate agreed to sale Jackson's extensive musical library of unreleased music to Sony for $250 million presumably for the release of 7 albums by 2017, however, a breech in Sony's email accounts permitted hackers to download 50,000 of Jackson's songs. At the time, Sony stated that they had fixed the hole in their email security; obviously, they didn't fix it enough (sic).
This situation of Sony dragging its feet in promoting Hart's upcoming "Wedding Ringer" is similar to the battle that Prince had with Warner Brother's records when they desired that he "slow down" the production of his music because they wanted to keep the audience hungry for more. An acrimonious two decade spat ensued that led to Prince's SLAVE references.
The best advice for Hart would be to hire a competent and LOYAL legal team to review all of the terms of his contract with his contracted business PARTNER to determine what legal recourse is available for his current and future benefit....JUST SAY'n.
No comments:
Post a Comment