Subjects:

Media and Entertainment Law

Contents:

Introduction to the internet and its impact on music distribution

Online contracts for the sale of music and merchandise

Website terms and conditions

E-Commerce Regulations 2002

Protecting and exploiting intellectual property rights in online music

Online marketing of music and merchandise

Collecting online data about music-buying consumers

Distance selling regulations and online music and merchandise sales

Paying for internet music distribution

Agreements with web designers, mobile operators and internet service providers

Strategic agreements between the internet music company and other parties

Advertising music and merchandise online

Electronic signatures and online music sales

Disability discrimination issues for music websites

Whose law applies to internet music sales?

Further reading

Index

There is hardly an aspect of internet music promotion, sale and distribution which does not have a legal dimension. Since the stakeholders in the process includes artists, their managers, music publishers, record companies, distribution companies and the consumer, the law relating to internet music distribution is extremely complex.

Andrew Sparrow's Music Distribution and the Internet provides those connected to the music and media industries with a guide to the legal requirements they must meet, answering questions such as:-

• How should you conclude contracts with consumers over the internet?
• What are the various legal terms and conditions that should govern the sale of physical product to online music buyers?
• How should a website user's personal information be handled?
• What limitations are there on the way this data may be used for ongoing marketing of an artist's work or the merchandise associated with it?
• What are the latest copyright laws in this area and how do they apply to the internet?

The book provides practical advice on how to approach key relationships with the internet buying consumer and other online media providers. The law is explained in straightforward terms and applied throughout in a music business context.

Music Distribution and the Internet is an essential reference for anyone seeking to exploit and protect their rights and those of their artists in the rapidly expanding, constantly evolving and fascinating arena that is new media.