In this excerpt from a panel discussion held at a 2008 meeting of the American Bar Association’s Sports & Entertainment Law Forum, the panelists discuss how songs are licensed for use in video games, and what it means in terms of licensing fees and royalty payments for publishers and copyright holders.

In this excerpt from a panel discussion held at a 2008 meeting of the American Bar Association’s Sports & Entertainment Law Forum, the panelists discuss how compositions generate fees and royalties from merchandising uses. Examples cited are lyrics printed on clothing as well as compositions and master recordings licensed for singing toys and a musical toothbrush.

John Kellogg, Professor of Music Business/Management at Berklee College of Music, discusses the impact that using a sample of a copyrighted work can have on your bottom line, and offers some alternative creative strategies that will keep all your work’s income flowing to you and you only.

Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, gives a capsule history of intellectual property and copyright law in the Western tradition, from its genesis as an offshoot of property rights in the eighteenth century and its enshrinement in the United States Constitution, through the past two centuries of tension between the law and new technologies that continually challenge the ability of the law to adequately encompass what they can do.

Loyola University, New Orleans student Marley Lovell talks with Russell Rains, Program Director of the MBA in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edward’s College in Austin, TX. Topics discussed include the MBA program at St. Edward’s; the ethical and economic issues surrounding digital rights management; and the various business models that are currently cropping up in an attempt to balance the demands of consumers with the financial needs of copyright holders.

As part of his capsule history of copyright law in the USA, Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, explains some key features of the 1909 Copyright Act – a piece of law that led to the creation of concepts like mechanical royalties (which led directly to the rise of the modern record business, broadcast rights, performance royalties, and other revenue streams which are central to the music business of today. He also enumerates the six rights granted by copyright and how each applies to the music business, and how “fair use” rights actually work under the law.

Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, discusses the motivations behind the creation of the entity that collects performance rights from music played on internet radio, SoundExchange, and addresses some of the controversies that have been shaking the foundations of the internet radio business. He also shares the results of some discussions he has had with senior record label executives in which they assert that online music is a passing fad.

Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, discusses the motivations behind the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and related copyright protection measures by the US Congress in the 1990s, as well as some of the legal issues that it was enacted to address.

Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, discusses both sides of the assertion that copyrights should never expire; that is, that copyright should be perpetual and never revert to the public domain, and refers this debate back to the original source of American copyright law – the US Constitution.

Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, explains what a “compulsory” license is and why this exception to the copyright owner’s control allows you to record a song no matter who owns it. He also explains what to do if you cannot locate the publisher of a work, but still want to make a recording of it.