After reading one article after another in which a reporter took Jared Leto's legal arguments at face value (is every single entertainment lawyer on vacation and unavailable for comment?) I hit Google to read up on the law he mentioned: California Labor Code Section 2855. This may be familiar to some of you since Cortney Love used Section 2855 as the basis for her attempt to get out of her contract with UMGVirgin Records and EMI. Leto said the band can leave its contract after seven years with no consequences. Yes, but there's more. Most people could just up and leave, but not recording artists.

Here's a page with text of Section 2855. Pay specific attention to subdivision (b). It says the record label contracts do not fall so neatly into Section 2855's seven year rule that applies to contracts to render personal services. Artists need to give written notice to the employer and set a departure date. Labels are able to sue for each album not delivered and can sue for breach of contract if written notice is not given by the artist. (Those are rough outlines of the law and obviously not the best legal ease ever written.)

As this article explains, one way around Section 2855 is to declare bankruptcy, as singer Toni Braxton did in 1998.

Section 2855 has been challenged many times (most notably the likes of Don Henley and Metallica), but artists tend to settle out of court. Rather than set legal precedent, artists would rather break away from their label or renegotiate. Over the last ten years, artists have been dropped with such speed and in such high numbers that I imagine there are far fewer causes for such lawsuits.

Extra reading:
• "Expanding the Rights of Recording Artists: An Argument to Repeal Section 2855(b) of the California Labor Code," Tracy Gardner, Brooklyn Law Review.
• Testimony of Ann Chaitovitz, Director of Sound Recordings, AFTRA, California State Senate Hearings on Recording Artist Exemption to Seven Year Statute.
• Snoop Dogg tested Section 2855 in a 2006 lawsuit against EMI.