Music Distribution and the Internet: A Legal Guide for the Music Business

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2007), "Music Distribution and the Internet: A Legal Guide for the Music Business", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 2, pp. 168-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710730420

At least three assumptions could be made on approaching this new book. One is that Andrew Sparrow, a lawyer in Birmingham in England and author of a still‐excellent introduction to electronic commerce law, comes highly recommended. Another is that there are several other good introductions to music law and the internet, like Harrison (2000), some of which provide good detail on contracts, like Bagehot and Kanaar (1998). And the third is that the music industry, and associated technology, commercial practice and law, is changing fast and so needs regular injections of new publications to keep the rest of us up to speed.

This book is targeted mainly at people in the music industry – music publishers, record companies, artists, composers and song‐writers. It will also find a market among people who study the entertainment industry (in this regard Mewton (2001) is relevant) and those, from students to practitioners, who have an interest in legal practice in fields like entertainment and music, marketing and distribution, e‐commerce and the internet. As such, it will find its way into the legal practices and offices where these people work and into libraries and personal collections used by them.

On the surface, music law takes us into some predictable, but important, areas, like contract and intellectual property rights (particularly copyright). Contract and IPR are understandably tangled up together. The internet has changed the structure of the music industry and consequently law associated with it. New ways for distributing music, like file‐sharing and downloads, and audio and video streaming to mobile phones, have not only brought structural and revenue‐stream changes to the industry, but also created new ways of negotiating copyright (by licensing and Creative Commons agreements). They have built on traditional contracting practices, with agreements between creators and artists and website designers and internet service providers and mobile suppliers.

As with the wider field of e‐commerce itself, this has impelled stakeholders, from creators and suppliers and intermediaries to consumers, to remain alert to the legal implications of what they do. Typically, agreements need as much to take account of reliability and functionality as of confidentiality and data protection. Traffic data and marketing information about customers is of critical interest to telecoms and ISPs and music distributors, as well as to regulators and information commissioners.

Sparrow (2000), then, takes the reader through this wider domain of the internet and e‐commerce, moving in on contracts, agreements and licences and focusing on IPR (with some useful, mainly USA, cases on file‐sharing and swings in the law). His discussion of agreements is helpful, updating discussion elsewhere such as Harrison). At times you feel that he has provided the background law without fully translating it across to music distribution itself (this is so with data protection), but, on the whole, coverage is relevant and helpful. It would be good to have a few more cases, but we have to remember that this is mainly a book by a lawyer for non‐lawyers, and to be fair his interpretation of new law (like regulations in UK law on performers’ rights and consumer protection) and on the choice of law is sound.

It is good, too, to see an analysis of that weasle‐term “broadcast” in this context, and what he says about podcasts (blogs could be added, especially legal blogs or “blawgs” like Naked Law) catches legal issues for today. Readers will probably want to read Whither the Legal Web? written and edited by Nick Holmes and Delia Venables (information at: www.infolaw.co.uk) which includes interesting discussion of these matters. Sparrow picks up on circumventing (another current concern), shows that the file‐sharing debate is moving uneasily into a subscription‐model environment (which makes it no less complex legally and financially), and notes how the law in advertising and marketing in the music field is throwing up new challenges (like the IPR of ring‐tones and merchandizing online through interactive television).

We say “new” but, in another sense like the internet itself, traditional legal areas, like contract and IPR and consumer protection, have shifted to accommodate new patterns of music distribution. How well, and from that how effective are legal decisions and interpretations in the field, is something Sparrow touches upon and something that readers will readily identify with, particularly if they are at the sharp end. Sparrow has added an attractive topical work to the current literature. It is a book no one in the field would want to miss, though things move so fast here that I give it three years of active life.