Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons^™

Why The Copyright Act Expressly Preempts State-Level Public Performance Rights In Pre-1972 Recordings, James Fahringer

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Over the past several years, two former bandmates in the 1960s rock group, The Turtles, have initiated several lawsuits against the popular music streaming services, Pandora and Sirius XM, arguing that the band owns common law copyrights in the sound recordings of its songs, and that these state-level copyrights grant the band an exclusive public performance right in its sound recordings. If accepted, this argument has the potential to significantly distort federal copyright policy because states would not be constrained by any of the balancing features of the Copyright Act, including Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbors for Internet …

A Tale Of Two Composers: An Argument For A Limited Expansion Of Moral Rights For Composers, Cassidy Grunninger

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Backing Down: Blurred Lines In The Standards For Analysis Of Substantial Similarity In Copyright Infringement For Musical Works, Nicholas Booth

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

The Price Of Social Norms: Towards A Liability Regime For File-Sharing, Daniel J. Gervais

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

The paper starts by asking whether P2P file-sharing of music can be stopped. Based on a discussion of (a) the interaction among law (regulation), technology and the market and (b) relevant social norms, the paper takes the view that it may not be possible to stop file-sharing. The paper then turns to an analysis of the economics and structure of a viable licensing model that could be implemented now without legislative or technological changes. The paper argues that P2P licensing could be good business. The paper ends with a brief look at (a) whether the licensing model could be exported …

Copyrightability Of Music Compilations And Playlists: Original And Creative Works Of Authorship?, Marc A. Fritzsche

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

Music compilations and playlists have a common nucleus of an act of gathering songs and ordering them. Their selection and arrangement can be decisive of the success and therefore can be valuable. And here is where the legal issues about their ownership arise: Are music compilations and playlists protectable under the regime of Copyright Law? This article will discuss the legal and practical issues connected with that question. Thereby, it will consider the United States, Europe in general and also the United Kingdom and Germany in particular. The individual legal systems and statutes will be analyzed, as well as the …

The Future Of Music: Reconfiguring Public Performance Rights, Gary Myers, George Howard

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

A Riff On Billy The Kid, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this essay the author discusses Billy Joel’s recording of Billy the Kid and that song's history.

Patented Electric Guitar Pickups And The Creation Of Modern Music Genres, Sean M. O'Connor

Articles

This Essay provides an overview of how patents played a core role in developing world-changing musical genres. This may be surprising, as normally copyright law is associated with incentivizing advances in the creative arts. But as this Conference’s theme [The IP Platform: Supporting Invention and Inspiration] and presentations emphasize, the whole range of intellectual property (“IP”), especially when viewed as a platform, supports innovation across the spectrum of human ingenuity and creativity.

This Essay is also intended to be read in conjunction with a viewing of the live-music demonstration of how pickups transformed popular music, delivered at the Conference and …

"Disillusioned Words Like Bullets Bark": Incitement To Genocide, Music, And The Trial Of Simon Bikindi, Robert H. Snyder

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Anti-Competitive Music Industry And The Case For Compulsory Licensing In The Digital Distribution Of Music, Ankur Srivastava

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cash From Chaos: Sound Recording Authorship, Section 203 Recapture Rights And A New Wave Of Termination, Hector Martinez

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

The thesis of this Article is that under an exclusive recording agreement entered into in the United States between a record label and recording artist on or after January 1, 1978, any key member of recording artist that signed the recording contract is a bona fide author of a sound recording for purposes of claiming standing in order to effectuate a termination of transfer of grant under Section 203 of the 1976 Copyright Act.

Part I will summarize the history of sound recordings as copyrightable subject matter. Part II will examine record industry custom and practice as it relates to …

Banksy Got Back? Problems With Chains Of Unauthorized Derivative Works And Arrangements In Cover Songs Under A Compulsory License, Matthew A. Eller

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

This Article will analyze the scope of copyright ownership in relation to chains of unauthorized derivative works and chains of arrangement rights in cover versions of musical recordings. In particular, the analysis will focus on the gray area in the law where an unauthorized derivative work (“D1”) is created by an author and another author creates a second derivative work (“D2”) based off of D1. In situations such as these, does the creator of the original derivative work have any rights in their creation if their derivative work was unauthorized?

Further, depending on what rights do exist for D1, can …

Private Copyright Reform, Kristelia A. García

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The government is not the only player in copyright reform, and perhaps not even the most important. Left to free market negotiation, risk averse licensors and licensees are contracting around the statutory license for certain types of copyright-protected content, and achieving greater efficiency via private ordering. This emerging phenomenon, herein termed “private copyright reform,” presents both adverse selection and distributive justice concerns: first, circumvention of the statutory license goes against legislative intent by allowing for the reduction, and even elimination, of statutorily mandated royalties owed to non-parties. In addition, when presented without full term disclosure, privately determined royalty rates can …

Finding The Groove: A Path Forward On Terminations Of Sound Recording Transfers, Adam Rich '12

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Play Your Part: Girl Talk's Indefinite Role In The Digital Sampling Saga, Shervin Rezaie

Touro Law Review

In 2006, Greg Gillis was a twenty-four year old leading a double-life. During the day he was a biomedical engineer, but by night he was slowly becoming an infamous mash-up artist. His albums mixed "Top 40" radio hits into a unique postmodern audio pastiche. Under the moniker Girl Talk, Greg made his entrance into the limelight with the release of Night Ripper, his third album. Night Ripper began gaining attention as audiences became intrigued and excited by Greg's ability to blend numerous artists, old and new, into one seamless track. To illustrate, the first track on Night Ripper, "Once Again," …

Public Performance Rights In The Digital Age: Fixing The Licensing Problem, G. S. Hans

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

Recent technological advances have allowed consumers to reinvent the mixtape. Instead of being confined to two sides of an audiocassette, people can now create playlists that stretch for hours and days on their computers, tablets, mobile devices, and MP3 players. This, in turn, has affected how people consume and listen to music, both in isolation and in groups. As individuals and business owners in the United States use devices to store, organize, and listen to music, they inevitably run up against the boundaries of U.S. copyright law. In general, these laws affect businesses more often than private individuals, who can …

Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels And The Webcasting Controversy: The Antithesis Of Good Alternative Dispute Resolution, Jeremy Delibero

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Music is becoming increasingly synonymous with big business and corporate influence. The advent of Internet radio and streaming webcasts are simply one example of this shift. Organizations such as the Radio Industry Association of America ("RIAA") have discovered a new way to receive royalties from the performance of musical works, and have fought vigorously to obtain favorable rates to achieve the maximum profit. On the other hand, small webcasters have fought equally hard to avoid these large rates. Although arguments for each side are equally persuasive, neither is persuasive enough to force a compromise. In attempting to solve these disputes, …

The Moral Rights Act Of 2007: Finding The Melody In The Music, Aurele Danoff

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

No abstract provided.

Heavy Metal Alloys: Unsigned Rock Bands And Joint Work, Michael S. Young

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This note uses humorous illustrations culled from the history of popular heavy metal music to facilitate examination of the effectiveness of joint authorship analysis by modern federal courts. The note carefully considers a variety of common contributions made by band members in the absence of any written or verbal agreement about authorship, and concludes (1) that a more equitable regime would do away with the requirement that a co-author make an "independently copyrightable" contribution, and (2) that courts must take greater care not to transform "will to control" into "intent to be a sole author."

No Bitin’ Allowed: A Hip-Hop Copying Paradigm For All Of Us, Horace E. Anderson Jr.

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

It is long past time to reform the Copyright Act. The law of copyright in the United States is at one of its periodic inflection points. In the past, major technological change and major shifts in the way copyrightable works were used have rightly led to major changes in the law. The invention of the printing press prompted the first codification of copyright. The popularity of the player piano contributed to a reevaluation of how musical works should be protected. The dawn of the computer age led to an explicit expansion of copyrightable subject matter to include computer programs. These …

Space Age Love Song: The Mix Tape In A Digital Universe, Megan M. Carpenter

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Music As Speech: A First Amendment Category Unto Itself, David Munkittrick

Federal Communications Law Journal

Perhaps the most ubiquitous of art forms, music accompanies daily activities from shopping to jogging. Music permeates modem society, and there is little question it constitutes an integral mode of expression. Despite recognition of music's worth, however, there is little explanation of music in First Amendment jurisprudence. A rationale for First Amendment protection begins with analysis of the particular medium of speech. Through a foray in musical aesthetics and the history of musical censorship, this Note discusses the role of music in political, societal, and individual experience. Music has had an important role in political events, from the fall of …

The Future Of Music: Reconfiguring Public Performance Rights, Gary Myers, George Howard

Faculty Publications

This article focuses on two concrete measures to improve the music industry prognosis. Public performance rights have long been an important piece of the economic pie that helps support the music business. This article suggests that the scope of public performance rights should be fundamentally reassessed and expanded. This expansion involves two specific and complementary reconfigurations.

Everything In Its Right Place: Social Cooperation And Artist Compensation, Leah Belsky, Byron Kahr, Max Berkelhammer, Yochai Benkler

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The music industry's crisis response to the Internet has been the primary driver of U.S. copyright policy for over a decade. The core institutional response has been to increase the scope of copyright and the use of litigation, prosecution, and technical control mechanisms for its enforcement. The assumption driving these efforts has been that without heavily-enforced copyright, artists will not be able to make a living from their art. Throughout this period artists have been experimenting with approaches that do not rely on technological or legal enforcement, but on constructing web-based business models that engage fans and rely on voluntary …

From Mbube To Wimoweh: African Folk Music In Dual Systems Of Law, Deborah Wassel

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Super Brawl: The History And Future Of The Sound Recording Performance Right, Brian Day

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

On February 4, 2009, Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the Performance Rights Act ("PRA") to the Senate, joined by Representative John Conyers in the House of Representatives. Thirty-eight years after sound recordings were first granted federal copyright protection against unauthorized reproduction and distribution--and more than ten years after gaining a limited digital performance right--legislation is pending that would once again expand the scope of sound recording copyright to encompass terrestrial radio broadcasts. Historically, such broadcasts have been exempt from sound recording performance royalties.[...] Instead of (or in addition to) seeking remuneration from terrestrial radio stations, this Note suggests that sound recording …

Live Performance, Copyright, And The Future Of The Music Business, Mark F. Schultz

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rhetoric Of Predictability: Reclaiming The Lay Ear In Music Copyright Infringement Litigation, Austin Padgett

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Some things cannot be described. This is the theory that recent literary criticism has placed as its cornerstone. Philosopher-critic Roland Barthes identified this trend in his Mythologies, stating that critics often “suddenly decide that the true subject of criticism is ineffable, and criticism, as a consequence, unnecessary. Unfortunately, this view has become singular within the legal academy whenever an author discusses music copyright infringement analysis. It seems that scholars fear the thought of trusting a jury with such an “ineffable” subject as music and must propose alternatives, such as expert testimony, specialized courts, or mechanical analysis, that will diminish …

Harmony And Its Functionality: A Gloss On The Substantial Similarity Test In Music Copyrights., Sergiu Gherman

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Royalty Rate-Setting For Webcasters: A Royal(Ty) Mess, Amy Duvall

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The Internet is a haven for free expression. Not only are content-based restrictions disfavored, but "[the internet] provides relatively unlimited, low-cost capacity for communication of all kinds." Almost half of all Americans have listened to music online, whether rebroadcasts of terrestrial radio or to find niche music that terrestrial radio simply does not play, and 13 percent tune in regularly. Webcasters provide a unique outlet for new artists; however, if royalty rates are set too high for all but the largest webcasters to stay in business, the variety of music available will be severely restricted. Musical diversity stimulates the generation …