For purposes of this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings:
(a)(1)"Advance fee" means any fee due from or paid by an artist prior to the artist obtaining actual employment as an artist or prior to the artist receiving actual earnings as an artist or that exceeds the actual earnings received by the artist as an artist.
(2)"Advance fee" does not include reimbursements for out-of-pocket costs actually incurred by the payee on behalf of the artist for services rendered or goods provided to the artist by an independent third party if all of the following conditions are met:
(A)The payee has no direct or indirect financial interest in the third party.
(B)The payee does not accept any referral fee or other consideration for referring the artist.
(C)The services rendered or goods provided for the out-of-pocket costs are not represented to be, and are not, a condition for the payee to register or list the artist with the payee.
(D)The payee maintains adequate records to establish that the amount to be reimbursed was actually advanced or owed to a third party and that the third party is not a person in which the payee has a direct or indirect financial interest or from which the payee receives any consideration for referring the artist.
(E)The burden of producing evidence to support a defense based upon an exemption or an exception provided in this paragraph is upon the person claiming it.
(b)"Advance-fee talent service" means a person who charges, attempts to charge, or receives an advance fee from an artist for one or more of the following, or for the purchase of any other product or service, including, but not limited to, those described in subdivisions (e) to (i), inclusive, of Section 1701.12, in order to obtain from or through the service one or more of the following:
(1)Procuring, offering, promising, or attempting to procure employment, engagements, or auditions for the artist.
(2)Managing or directing the development or advancement of the artist's career as an artist.
(3)Career counseling, career consulting, vocational guidance, aptitude testing, evaluation, or planning, in each case relating to the preparation of the artist for employment as an artist.
(c)"Artist" or "artists" means persons who seek to become or are actors or actresses rendering services on the legitimate stage or in the production of motion pictures, radio artists, musical artists, musical organizations, directors of legitimate stage, motion picture and radio productions, musical directors, writers, cinematographers, composers, lyricists, arrangers, models, extras, and other artists or persons rendering professional services in motion picture, theatrical, radio, television, and other entertainment enterprises.
(d)"Fee" means any money or other valuable consideration paid or promised to be paid by or for an artist for services rendered or to be rendered by any person conducting the business of an advance-fee talent service.
(e)"Person" means any individual, company, society, firm, partnership, association, corporation, limited liability company, trust, or other organization.