Law and Business of the Entertainment Industries, 5th Edition (Law & Business of the Entertainment Industries) [Hardcover]

Donald E. Biederman (Author), Edward P. Pierson (Author), Martin E. Silfen (Author), Janna Glasser (Author), Charles J. Biederman (Author), Kenneth J. Abdo (Author), Scott D. Sanders (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0275992055 | ISBN-13: 978-0275992057 | Publication Date: November 30, 2006 | Edition: 5

In response to the increasing convergence of technologies in the entertainment industries, this thoroughly updated and revised fifth edition makes the casebook more timeless. Providing contract templates covering book publishing, recording contracts, actor agreements, video game agreements, and internet agreements, among others, this new edition is more useful and illustrative of the business of entertainment for lawyers, students, and industry professionals than its competition. Introductions, notes, and cases are fully updated to take into account recent changes in the industry. This classic casebook is essential to students at law schools throughout the country and to industry professionals trying to keep up with this ever-changing field of law.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Law and Business of the Entertainment Industries is one of the few texts that thoroughly explores both aspects of the various entertainment industries. Now in its fifth edition, Law and Business of the Entertainment Industries is authored by a panel of experts who are also among the top lawyers in the field. This lends a certain gravitas both to the theoretical, as well as to the practical, aspects of the work. This classic tome sets out and examines the various businesses that comprise the entertainment industry in an accessible, interesting, and thoroughly informative manner....[t]he text generously uses entertainment industry cases and historical examples in order to explain many of the basic principles of these legal specialties. The pleasing result is both a casebook filled with several of the most important decisions affecting the entertainment business....In all, this fully updated fifth edition....[m]ay well be the most comprehensive work on the subject available.”–Entertainment and Sports Lawyer

“Aimed at law students preparing to specialize in this area, this text examines both the legal and business aspects of the entertainment industries. The authors begin by looking at the roles of the various representatives of entertainers and discussing the complex issues involved in recognizing and acquiring rights. Other topics include (for example) literary publishing, sound recordings, film, television, and the Internet. Editor Don Biederman (who died in 2002) taught entertainment and media law at Southwestern U. School of Law in Los Angeles.”–Reference & Research Book News

About the Author

DONALD E. BIEDERMAN was Executive Vice President/Legal & Business Affairs and General Counsel, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Los Angeles and Professor of Law and Director, National Institute of Entertainment & Media Law, at Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles, CA (now the Donald E. Biederman Entertainment & Media Law Institute).

EDWARD P. PIERSON is Executive Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs and General Counsel of Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif., Adjunct Professor of Law at Southwestern University School of Law and past Chair of the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries.

MARTIN E. SILFEN is an entertainment attorney and Adjunct Professor of Law at William and Mary Law School and Intellectual Property Summer Institute of Franklin Pierce Law Center. He is a member of the Virginia Bar.

JANNA GLASSER is an entertainment attorney and Vice President and General Counsel of Mona Lisa Sound, Inc. She has served as an Adjunct Professor at Pace University School of Law. She is a member of the New York Bar.

CHARLES J. BIEDERMAN is Counsel with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Los Angeles. He has served as Adjunct Professor at Vanderbilt University Law School and Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. He is a member of the New York, Georgia and Tennessee Bars.

KENNETH J. ABDO is Vice President of Lommen Abdo Law Firm in Minneapolis, MN. He is also Adjunct Professor at William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota and past Chair of the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries.

SCOTT D. SANDERS of Scott D. Sanders, P.C., is an entertainment attorney, entertainment litigator and member of the Georgia Bar. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law teaching Entertainment Law. In Jennings v. The Black Crowes, a case based upon a "pie-chart" agreement between a band and their tour manager, he was lead counsel for the plaintiff in the first music industry related trial televised "live" on Court-TV.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1044 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Publishers; 5 edition (November 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275992055
• ISBN-13: 978-0275992057
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Law > Business > Entertainment
  • #37 in Books > Law > English Law > Business
  • #83 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Performing Arts

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the money and then some, January 1, 2011

By 

Don McGowan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Law and Business of the Entertainment Industries, 5th Edition (Law & Business of the Entertainment Industries) (Hardcover)

Besides my day job, I teach entertainment law at the University of Washington. As such I receive lots of free books from publishers who want me to assign them as textbooks. I paid actual money for this one, and I agree with William Wilson's review: this book is an absolutely top-notch overview of a complex field. In particular, the review of music publishing is very helpful. Music publishing is an absolute nightmare of a business and the legal issues can leave you totally lost. This book covers them in a way that makes them as intelligible as possible. The only chapters I'd think are lacking are the ones on video games, but that's a very new field from a legal perspective and actually many of the issues are the same as in other entertainment fields so there are analogies aplenty.

Depending on the length of your course, I would seriously consider assigning this textbook.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat Helpful, April 15, 2008

By 

sayock - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Law and Business of the Entertainment Industries, 5th Edition (Law & Business of the Entertainment Industries) (Hardcover)

I would basically have to agree with Jen's review about this book. There are too many cases, the book is huge and the font is small...especially in the notes sections. The inclusion of various types of contracts has its plusses and minuses. I feel as if the contracts are stuck in the book in their entirety, but they're not necessarily explained. Thus, even if you're in law school, you're reading the contracts, not understanding the language and then not getting an explanation of the contracts. It's almost the same as reading the contracts as a complete layperson. The worst part is that there are tons of these contracts. Someone who taught this course as an adjunct at my law school assigned pretty much all the contracts in the book to read.

Obviously, they are not captivating reading, so if you're in this position you can get stuck reading boring contracts that you don't understand and a professor who assigns all these contracts to read but doesn't explain them well enough--either because he's a lawyer in this field and it makes way more sense to him than to you and/or because he's a practicing attorney rather than a real law professor and, thus, doesn't really know how to teach. I think both applied in my situation, and, unfortunately, people teaching entertainment law oftentimes will be practicing attorneys and/or completely over your head with knowledge.

I don't feel as if this book is well-written, and sometimes the contracts aren't the only things that don't make sense or aren't explained well enough. Terms are thrown out or descriptions/explanations of the industry are given sometimes in ways that don't help someone who knows nothing about it...or at least doesn't know about the areas being covered by a particular chapter. I'm not just talking about the legal aspects; I am also referring to the actual industry itself and the way things work in it. That makes this book much worse than the average legal casebook. And with the size of this book--and, as a result, the amount of material covered in it--a lot of stuff that doesn't always make sense is thrown at you, and that's hard to deal with, even for a law student. And with other books I've seen and/or read on the market that explain the entertainment industry, this book could easily be less in-depth/complicated and shorter, even including the same amount of cases.

In other words, this book is just not brought down to a dummy's level enough, or even enough to be taught in law school. And it takes what should be an interesting subject and makes it completely devoid of intrigue. For people who are interested in this book outside of school reading and want to know more about the intersection of business, entertainment and/or law, this is not the book to read or refer to. What I did like about this book is when I could understand it, it presented a lot of interesting cases and information about the industry, even in its complicated contracts. Still, professors and teachers, please find a better textbook if you're using this to teach...or arrange your class lectures in a way that breaks the book down in English!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Has room for improvement..., December 5, 2007

By 

jen "JL" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Law and Business of the Entertainment Industries, 5th Edition (Law & Business of the Entertainment Industries) (Hardcover)

1. There are too many cases to illustrate the same point. For example, the Remedies section does not nearly need to be as long as it is. The bankruptcy section would be just as adequate and informative with 2-3 cases and more commentary. The agency rules chapter and the chapter on literary publishing also have this same problem: it is repetitive and there are too many cases with the same point. Some of the cases would have been been just as effective as a note case.

2. The size of the font for the note cases are too small and sometimes, an eye strain to read. I understand that there is a concern for the length of the book, but with the first suggestion and using thinner pages may fix this. (this book uses paper that is considerably thicker than your average law book). Also, sometimes, with the center justification alignment for the note cases, it squeezes the sentences together, it's almost impossible to read. (see page 199, note 3, the third line --the entire line is practically one word).

3. On the plus side, I do like how the book goes through entertainment agreements. For example, the detailed discussions on music publishing agreements with comments after each provision were very helpful.