The Gazette: Artists find outlet to avoid pitfalls

A new group is helping Montreal artists - painters, musicians, filmmakers, photographers and others - learn the legal and business side of being creative. … Laws regarding the protection of intellectual property and licensing and distribution are complicated at the best of times. But the organization is hoping a series of workshops in Montreal's booming festival community and monthly legal information meetings will help give artists a few basics to avoid some of the pitfalls. "There are all kinds of things that are related to the creation of art that have legal implications," said Keith Serry, a McGill University law graduate who is a co-founder of CJAM and a co-director. "We have done (consultations about rights for) music, filmmaking, scriptwriting and screenwriting, visual arts, photography, painting, dance and theatre," he said.