Introduction to Entertainment Law

Catalog description

The entertainment industry is undergoing a period of disruptive transformation. Traditional distribution channels are being disintermediated by powerful new platforms, while technology companies themselves are emerging as dominant content creators. These trends are playing out against the backdrop of a revolution in artificial intelligence that threatens to upend our most basic assumptions around the nature of creative work. This seminar provides a theoretical overview of the bodies of law shaping the entertainment industry in the digital age: right of publicity, First Amendment, defamation, labor, contract, copyright, and trademark. We will also spend time on specialized topics such as over-the-top distribution and music clearance. Students will have the opportunity to explore, in depth, an area of particular interest to them in a final paper for two units. Elements used in grading: Attendance, class participation, final paper.