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Law and Business of the Entertainment Industries
by Donald E. Biederman, Martin E. Silfen, Jeanne A. Glasser, Rober Berry
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Praeger Pub (1991-11)
ISBN: 0275941140
EAN: 9780275941147
Dewy Decimal #: 343.730787902
Hardcover: 809 pages
Edition: 2nd
SKU: 00-EVQ9-0FGF
Condition: Good
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Editorial Reviews
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Book Description
In response to increasing convergence of technologies in the entertainment industries, this thoroughly updated and revised fourth edition in also carefully reorganized and conveniently reformatted. Moreover, this new easy to read single-column format makes the volume a more accessible resource for lawyers, students, and industry professionals. The fourth edition is divided into two parts--one dealing with general principles and the other dealing with specific entertainment and related industries--and over fifty new cases have been added. The case material covers recent changes in the entertainment business--among them innovations, consolidations, copyright issues, and globalization--and each is analyzed in detail. FREE semi-annual supplements are available. FOR THE FIRST TIME THESE SUPPLEMENTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE!!
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Customer Reviews
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Somewhat Helpful
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-04-16
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!
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Has room for improvement...
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-12-06
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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Table of Contents:
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-08-12
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction 1
Global Overview 1
Standards Governing Preliminary Injunctions, Motions for Summary Judgment, and Attachments 6
Ch. 1 Representing Talent 13
Ch. 2 Talent Contracts 67
Ch. 3 Acquisition of Rights: Rights of Personality and Identity 157
Ch. 4 Acquisition of Rights: Ideas and Other Property 281
Ch. 5 Contract Performance, Exploitation Obligations, and Limitations on Exploitation 353
Ch. 6 Remedies 431
Ch. 7 Literary Publishing 525
Ch. 8 Music Publishing 549
Ch. 9 Sound Recordings 581
Ch. 10 Films 625
Ch. 11 Television 657
Ch. 12 The Internet, Multimedia, and Emerging Technologies 689
Ch. 13 Theatre 773
Table of Cases 803
Index 831
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Excellent
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-05-20
0 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
A book that has it's groundings firmly set into the the real world, dealing with real problems and real people, providing real life examples and presenting all the legal aspects of the entertaintment business. In this forth edition things have been turned up a notch and the information just got a little hotter, with even more revealing information and an interesting online section. As good as this book is there is something on the market that surpasses it, the excellent "How To Make A Furtune In The Music Industry By Doing It Yourself: Your Personal Step-By-Step Guide To Having A Successful Career In The Music Business. ... To Sell Music, Book Shows And Get Noticed!" by author Ty Cohen, a book that contains the latest and best information concerning the world of music producingA book that has it's groundings firmly set into the real world, dealing with real problems and real people, providing real life examples and presenting all the legal aspects of the entertainment business. In this forth edition things have been turned up a notch and the information just got a little hotter, with even more revealing information and an interesting online section. As good as this book is there is something on the market that surpasses it, the excellent "How To Make A Fortune In The Music Industry By Doing It Yourself: Your Personal Step-By-Step Guide To Having A Successful Career In The Music Business. ... To Sell Music, Book Shows And Get Noticed!" by author Ty Cohen, a book that contains the latest and best information concerning the world of music producing.
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A helpful examination of the entertainment business
Rating  (4)
Date: 1999-05-05
14 out of 16 customers found this reveiw helpful
As an attorney teaching an entertainment law course to undergraduates at the University of Notre Dame, I've found this text book to be very useful. Not only does it address and examine legal issues that face entertainment industry persons, it examines *how* the entertainment industries actually work. The vast majority of my students have found this book to be useful and worthwhile.
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