the Brockert Initiative, also known as the Teena Marie Law, is a California-based law that protects recording artist's rights. it came about sometime after Marie had won an out-of-court settlement against Motown Records. she was sued by them for breach of contract when she noticed that the contract she signed was without legal counsel and it allowed Motown to pay her the same amount of money per year; of the four Motown albums she recorded, her last two, IRONS IN THE FIRE (1980)and IT MUST BE MAGIC(1981), were big sellers and brought in over $2 million in profit, yet she was still making the same salary. she later informed them that she no longer wanted to be an artist/writer for them. she countersued them for non-payment of royalties, along with a bogus contract and signed with Epic Records in 1983. By the time her second Epic album, STARCHILD (1984), was released, the suit was won in her favor. her settlement amount was about $1.2 million and the "Teena Marie Bill" was made into law by Congress shortly after. it states that no record label can legally bind an artist if no records are released by that artist. also, an artist must be paid no less than a certain amount of money per year to stay under exclusive contract with a label b-fore an injunction against an artist can be made (royalties, tour support, advances/budgets are unaffected by this) and there are limits to the contract's length of time. in California, it was seven years. it may have been changed. many an artist have used this law to free themselves from onerous contracts.
markus
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statsongs@hotmail.com

what is it about? I would like to know since i like her so much
thanks

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amen to that! it was formed not long after she won a settlement against motown records in 1984.
markster

Yes and everyone who is in the music business should be thanking this woman for going forth and making this a law.