Law Commons^™

The Times They Are A Changin': How Technology Has Forced The Law To Deal With A New Era In Music Distribution, Mark Plotkin

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The United States has attempted to keep pace with emerging digital music distribution technology through its copyright law. However, the perfect quality, limitless geographical scope, and exponential growth of digital music delivery implicate the varied and conflicting interests of songwriters, performers, record companies, broadcasters, and the public. Reconciling the interests of these groups in digital music delivery has not been, and will not be, easy...

To understand how the 1995 Act and the DMCA change music licensing, one should be aware that, in general, two distinct copyrights exist for each song that is recorded: the song copyright and the sound …

Phoenix Rising: Inside The Owner's Box With Counsel To Jerry Colangelo, J. S. Ruffner

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In late spring of 1987, I received a telephone call that changed my law practice. Jerry Colangelo, General Manager of the Suns since its arrival in Phoenix as an expansion NBA franchise in 1969, called me to discuss representing a group of investors he was putting together for the purchase of the franchise. At the time, the Suns franchise was the only major professional sports team in Arizona and had been very successful. Unfortunately, the reputation of the team, carefully nurtured from its arrival, recently had been tarnished by allegations and investigations concerning drugs. Jerry explained that the Tucson and …

Changing The Rules: Why The Current "Actual Knowledge" Sexual Harrasment Standard Doesn't Make The Cut In Athletics, Andrea Ivory

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In clear cases of sexual harassment, it is easy and appropriate to punish improper, predatory behavior. In such cases, the victim will be compelled to report the abuse, and the school will be compelled to respond. But the athletic environment occupies the blurry periphery of conduct that violates personhood. Here, in the sports context, intimate contact is routine, whether in heated moments on the field or in the forced companionship on the road. There is an increased risk of sexual harassment because the very environment is characterized by close physical and emotional relationships as well as unequal power relations. Physical …

Rebroadcast Rights: The Coming Battle In The War Between The Networks And The Affiliats, Harland R. Schreiber

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Note will analyze the present rebroadcast dispute, examining the legal and practical issues that will arise and recommend how the parties should proceed in the controversy. The analysis will place this controversy within the larger context of how networks and affiliates are attempting to redefine their roles in the television industry.

The first section will address the history of networks and affiliates and how their relationships have changed as technology has advanced. The second section will then place the present controversy regarding cable rebroadcasts within the framework of the larger industry. It will also address how the present controversy …

The Architecture Of Privacy: Remaking Privacy In Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This is an essay about privacy. My aim is to understand privacy through these two very different ideas. Privacy, in the sense that I mean here, can be described by these two different ideas. It stands in competition with these ideas. It is that part of life that is left after one subtracts, as it were, the monitored and the searchable. A life where less is monitored is a life where more is private; and life where less can (legally or technologically) be searched is also a life where more is private. By understanding the technologies of these two different …

Filling The Black Hole Of Cyberspace: Legal Protections For Online Privacy, R. Craig Tolliver

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The Internet is a unique and wholly new medium of worldwide human communication. This pronouncement of the United States Supreme Court echoes what most of the American population has known for some time. The emergence of cyberspace has dramatically changed the nature of electronic communications, and consumers are conducting online transactions at a tremendous pace. While this revolution has obviously increased the amount and types of information available to American consumers, it has also achieved a different result: businesses now have access to an unprecedented amount of personal information. In turn, there exists a danger that this information will be …

What Hath Ovitz Wrouqht: Agents V. Managers Revisited, Donald E. Biederman

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

For more than 60 years, a feud has raged between artists' managers and talent agents. In part, this has to do with philosophical differences concerning the role which each plays in the development and furtherance of their clients' careers, and in part it concerns the levels of compensation each can receive. As a general rule of thumb, the job of an agent is to find work for his/her clients, whereas the job of a manager is to guide and develop the client's career. Of equal importance is the manner in which they are regarded by prevailing law. Agents have been …

Music, Money, And The Middleman: The Relationship Between The Songwriter And The Publisher, Cornelius Cowles

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Money, along with creative drive and the chance to work in an exciting industry, push the publisher and songwriter both. This article seeks to help the songwriter under-stand the role of the music publisher, an indispensable and unavoidable part of the country music industry. It examines the songwriter-publisher relationship from the perspective of those people active in the industry and examines criticism of the publisher's role. It further analyzes the typically thorny legal and contractual issues faced by the songwriter in negotiating an exclusive songwriting agreement with the publisher. Finally, recognizing the special role of songwriters in Nashville, it addresses …