Free as a what?

November 4, 2002

New York State Artistic Freedom Act of 2002

The "Artistic Freedom Act of 2002," will protect certain performing artists in the sound recording industry from the restrictions of overly long personal service contracts. New York is a national center of artistic expression, a dynamic which benefits the entire community of our state. It is incumbent upon the legislature to ensure that creative artists are not unduly restrained in their efforts to obtain work, participate in the free market or to associate freely.

It establishes a time limit of three years for unrepresented artists and seven years for artists represented by qualified counsel. This period will allow both the employer and the artist to benefit from their bargain for a reasonable length of time. It is limited to certain performing artists in the sound recording industry where binding time frames of as long as 25 years have been found to unfairly burden the artist.

But,
RIAA Sees No Future For N.Y. Artists' Bill (via Current copyright readings)