California Senate To Study State's 'Seven-Year Statute'

The California State Senate will hold a hearing Sept. 5 in Sacramento to begin investigation of the so-called "Seven-Year Statute." Don Henley and Courtney Love are expected to testify at the hearing, which will be held by the newly formed Select Committee on the Entertainment Industry. The committee is chaired by state Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, a former music agent at the William Morris Agency.

California's Seven-Year Statute limits the amount of time an individual can be held to a contract for personal services. It was amended in 1987 to provide a limited exception for recording contracts. A number of artists?including Henley, Love, Luther Vandross, and Metallica?have sued their labels under the statute; however, the suits have always been settled before a ruling could be delivered on the statute's viability.

"There is clearly some ambiguity in the law, and we will investigate how to clarify the law for both artists and their employers," Murray says in a statement. Virtually every other industry in California?with the exception of the record industry?is held to personal-service contracts that cannot legally run longer than seven years. I am aware that there are two sides to this issue; that is precisely the reason this hearing is necessary."