Comprehensive coverage of entertainment law and all areas of mass communications and the arts. Provides state-of-the-art forms with expert drafting advice and commentary to guide you through key contractual phases of business dealings. Provides practice-tested agreements and clauses for developing solid contracts. Covers sound recordings, computer software, music video programming, motion pictures, books, magazines, plays, mass media, artwork, photographs, advertising, publicity, merchandising, agency agreements, granting of rights, photocopying, and computers. Examines statutory changes, case law, and development of legal doctrines and the classic cases that helped establish those doctrines. Includes appendixes and table of cases.

Media Law for Producers is a comprehensive handbook that explains, in lay terms, the myriad legal issues that the producer will face on a regular basis - contracts, permits, defamation, patents, releases and insurance, libel, royalties and residuals, as well as protecting the finished production. This revised and expanded edition includes such Internet-related topics as Internet music law, online registration, and online privacy. Other new topics covered include: · Implied and express contracts in the project/idea submission process · Assignment/transfer of copyright · Music clip licensing · Use of other people's trademarks in media production · Parody as a defense to copyright infringement Clear explanations examine the how and why of different types of production contracts, and checklists provide a quick means for producers to determine when their productions might be at greatest risk to legal challenges. Media Law for Producers also examines the substantial changes in copyright term resulting from recent copyright legislation. Legal problems can be very costly to media producers. Lawyers and court fees, coupled with the loss of work time, can lead to bankruptcy. Media Law for Producers cuts through the legalese and illustrates legal issues to help producers recognize the legal questions that can arise during production.

The original text of the Constitution grants Congress the power to create a regime of intellectual property protection. The first amendment, however, prohibits Congress from enacting any law that abridges the freedoms of speech and of the press. While many have long noted the tension between these provisions, recent legal and cultural developments have transformed mere tension into conflict. No Law offers a new way to approach these debates. In eloquent and passionate style, Lange and Powell argue that the First Amendment imposes absolute limits upon claims of exclusivity in intellectual property and expression, and strips Congress of the power to restrict personal thought and free expression in the name of intellectual property rights. Though the First Amendment does not repeal the Constitutional intellectual property clause in its entirety, copyright, patent, and trademark law cannot constitutionally license the private commodification of the public domain. The authors claim that while the exclusive rights currently reflected in intellectual property are not in truth needed to encourage intellectual productivity, they develop a compelling solution for how Congress, even within the limits imposed by an absolute First Amendment, can still regulate incentives for intellectual creations. Those interested in the impact copyright doctrines have on freedom of expression in the U.S. and the theoretical and practical aspects of intellectual property law will want to take a closer look at this bracing, resonant work.

The Recording Industry presents a brief but comprehensive overview of how records are made, marketed, and sold. Designed for an introductory survey course, but also applicable to the amateur musician, the book opens with an overview of popular music and its place in American society, along with the key players in the recording industry: record companies; music publishers; and performance venues. In the book's second part, the making of a recording is traced from production through marketing and then retail sales. Finally, in part 3, legal issues, including copyright and problems of piracy, are addressed. - BOOK JACKET.