California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 2068

Introduced by Assembly Member Holden

February 17, 2016

An act to amend Section 1703.4 of the Labor Code, relating to employment.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2068, as introduced, Holden. Talent services.

Existing law regulates the licensing and operation of talent services within the entertainment industry. Existing law prohibits specific activities or omissions by a talent service or its owners, directors, officers, agents, and employees, including the failure to remove information about, or photographs of, an artist displayed on the talent service’s Internet Web site or an Internet Web site that the service has the authority to design or alter, within 10 days of delivery of a request made by telephone, mail, facsimile transmission, or electronic mail from the artist or from a parent or guardian of the artist if the artist is a minor. A willful violation of those prohibitions is a crime.

This bill would specify that an Internet Web site includes a computer application program, and would require the talent service to also remove requests made by text message. Because a violation of these provisions would be a crime under certain circumstances, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 1703.4 of the Labor Code is amended to
read:

1703.4.  

(a) A talent service, its owners, directors, officers,
agents, and employees shall not do any of the following:

(1) Make or cause to be made any advertisement or
representation expressly or impliedly offering the opportunity for
an artist to meet with or audition before any producer, director,
casting director, or any associate thereof, or any other person who
makes, or is represented to make, decisions for the process of hiring
artists for employment as an artist, or any talent agent or talent
manager, or any associate, representative, or designee thereof,
unless the talent service maintains for inspection and copying
written evidence of the supporting facts, including the name,
business address, and job title of all persons conducting the meeting
or audition, and the title of the production and the name of the
production company.

(2) Make or cause to be made any advertisement or
representation that any artist, whether identified or not, has
obtained an audition, employment opportunity, or employment as
an artist in whole or in part by use of the talent service unless the
talent service maintains for inspection written evidence of the
supporting facts upon which the claim is based, including the name
of the artist and the approximate dates the talent service was used
by the artist.

(3) Charge or attempt to charge an artist for an audition or
employment opportunity.

(4) Require an artist, as a condition for using the talent service
or for obtaining an additional benefit or preferential treatment from
the talent service, to pay a fee for creating or providing
photographs, filmstrips, videotapes, audition tapes, demonstration
reels, or other reproductions of the artist, Internet Web sites, casting
or talent brochures, or other promotional materials for the artist.

(5) Charge or attempt to charge an artist any fee not disclosed
pursuant to paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of Section 1703.

(6) Refer an artist to a person who charges the artist a fee for
any service or any product in which the talent service, its owners,
directors, officers, agents, or employees have a direct or indirect
financial interest, unless the fee and the financial interest are
conspicuously disclosed in a separate writing provided to the artist
to keep prior to his or her execution of the contract with the talent
service.

(7) Require an artist, as a condition for using a talent service or
for obtaining any additional benefit or preferential treatment from
the talent service, to pay a fee to any other talent service in which
the talent service, its owners, directors, officers, agents, or
employees have a direct or indirect financial interest.

(8) Accept any compensation or other consideration for referring
an artist to any person charging the artist a fee.

(9) Fail to remove information about, or photographs of, the
artist displayed on the talent service’s Internet Web begin delete site, end delete begin insert site end insert or begin delete a end delete
begin insert an Internet end insert Web site that the service has the authority to design or
alter, begin insert including, but not limited to, a computer application program, end insert
within 10 days of delivery of a request made by telephone, begin insert text
message, end insert mail, facsimile transmission, or electronic mail from the
artist or from a parent or guardian of the artist if the artist is a
minor.

(b) A talent training service and talent counseling service and
the owners, officers, directors, agents, and employees of the talent
training service or talent counseling service shall not own, operate,
or have a direct or indirect financial interest in a talent listing
service.

(c) A talent listing service and its owners, officers, directors,
agents, and employees shall not do begin delete either end delete begin insert any end insert of the following:

(1) Own, operate, or have a direct or indirect financial interest
in a talent training service or a talent counseling service.

(2) Provide a listing of an audition, job, or employment
opportunity without written permission for the listing. A talent
listing service shall keep and maintain a copy of all original
listings; the name, business address, and business telephone number
of the person granting permission to the talent listing service to
use the listing; and the date the permission was granted.

(3) Make or cause to be made an advertisement or representation
that includes the trademark, logo, name, word, or phrase of a
company or organization, including a studio, production company,
network, broadcaster, talent agency licensed pursuant to Section
1700.5, labor union, or begin insert labor end insert organization as defined in Section
1117, in any manner that falsely or misleadingly suggests the
endorsement, sponsorship, approval, or affiliation of a talent
service.

SEC. 2.  

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of
the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within
the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.