004 - Is the Drag Race Contract Legit? Two Lawyers Discuss
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On this episode of the podcast I talk with attorney Leeja Miller about the Drag Race contract. Leeja owns two YouTube channels, one where she gives a legal perspective on current events, and one where she does Drag Race reactions. Part-time, Leeja does family and divorce law.
Leeja created a reaction video to Bussy Queen's video exposing the RuPaul's Drag Race contract where she reacted live as she watched it the first time, commenting on provisions in the contract such as Drag Race owning and being able to use any clip they filmed, forever.
Section 1, Development Production of Operations, talks about the five exclusive, irrevocable options to bring people on to additional cycles like All Stars. Leeja discusses the implications of this on both ends, for example if Trixie turns down All Stars because she's too busy, how does it make Drag Race look to sue her for breach of contract? I call these Heads Up provisions in contracts when the reality is you won't enforce it but you're telling the person signing it that you really want them to agree with this. From a business standpoint, upholding every aspect of a contract is not always sustainable so some clauses need to be taken with a grain of salt.
The contract also dives into copyright in regards to what you create on the show and with what you have created before the show. Leeja has previously done intellectual property work, and describes a trademark as something that a business is going to use and put on a product that identifies the source of that product. Copyrights are creative works meant to protect the creator or author. Trademarks need to be registered, copyrights are created when you make something.
Copyrights come with a bundle of rights - the right to reproduce the work, the right to display/perform the work, the right to distribute the work, and creative derivative work. For example, if you take your RuPaul's Drag Race audition tape and put it on YouTube, that could count as a derivative work.
Reviewing the exclusivity period, the talent gives producers and all media exclusivity through 12 months after the initial airdate of the last episode. The contract also requires participation at DragCon.
The contract also dives into management options stating, "I hereby grant the producer the exclusive option to serve as my exclusive manager pursuant to an agreement to be negotiated in good faith between producer and me in accordance with industry standard." This can be interpreted in different ways, possibly meaning that the company has to be your manager and if you don't like the terms then you will not have a manager.
The contract discusses granting your likeness, which brings Leeja and I to a conversation about the Vanna White case from the 90s where Samsung created a TV commercial to sell VCRs using Vanna White's likeness as a robot without her consent. This would expand to anything RuPaul wants to sell with the queens' likenesses on merch or apps and can include any phrases, ideas, or catchphrases that they create during the show belongs to the show.
Confidentiality is an important part of the contract, with a non-disclosure agreement stating you will not share information including the premise and title of the show. When a contract has been breached, the assumption is that the other party will sue them in court. Unconscionability becomes a defense for the breaching party to use in court to say "yes, maybe I did breach the terms of this contract, however the contract itself or the wording itself is unconscionable and here's why."
Generally, when hired to draft contracts, attorneys will throw a lot to the wall like in the case of this contract, not always with malintent.
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