The Law of Rock and Roll

Series produced by Michael Olivas

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Michael Olivas -- the rock n roll law professor -- comments on legal issues involving entertainment, musicians and fans.

Michael Olivas -- the rock n roll law professor -- comments on legal issues involving entertainment, musicians and fans.


116 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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These times continue to prompt hundreds of rock documentaries and biopics every year, with increasing questions over privacy, authorization, defama...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Nov 23, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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This miscellany includes shorter legal stories; this Class covers issues of “orphan works” and archival and legal dimensions of specialized large m...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Nov 23, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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Several cases have arisen over musical lyrics, and the possible effect they can have on listeners. These include claims that songs urged suicide or...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Nov 23, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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How bands resolve personal and professional issues can lead to the dissolution of the group, and how they govern themselves over complex issues fre...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Nov 23, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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Tom Petty died unexpectedly, at the top of his career. He had begun to re-mix and re-issue his classic “Wildflower” LP, which, after his death, led...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Nov 23, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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With vinyl albums no longer the main form of releasing music, the values of classic old and rare LPs have increased into the millions, especially w...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Nov 23, 2021
  • Length: 05:00
  • Purchases: 3
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Many rock and roll entertainers have engaged in bad behavior while with the band or in their personal lives. These spill over into their profession...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Nov 23, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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A number of successful songs were performed by groups that were not actual bands, but “fake” groups, assembled for projects that grew bigger as the...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Nov 23, 2021
  • Length: 05:00
  • Purchases: 3
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Most concerts have complex legal affairs, and Coachella has used “radius clauses” to limit its participants to time and distance factors, to ensure...

Bought by KSLU, KUHF, and WTJU


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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Shakira has been in a long-running tax dispute with Spanish authorities, turning on her residence and tax domicile. While hers has played out in pu...

Bought by KSLU, KUHF, and WTJU


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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The COVID pandemic struck the music industry very deeply, especially in issues of how to tour and perform safely, for bands, employees, and fans. W...

Bought by KSLU, KUHF, and WTJU


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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Frank Zappa’s will left management of his large musical archives and rights to his wife, who set up a corporation for their children, with unequal ...

Bought by KSLU, KUHF, and WTJU


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 05:00
  • Purchases: 3
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Within the massive shift in monetizing artists’ archives, with many millions at stake, legal issues arise on how to apportion rights and credits. F...

Bought by KSLU, KUHF, and WTJU


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 05:00
  • Purchases: 3
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After 50 years, the authorship of this classic song was contested, and Roy Head’s former bandmember finally received the proper writing credit.

Bought by KSLU, KUHF, and WTJU


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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While Britney Spears’s conservatorship is the best known of such legal strategies, it is in a long trend of entertainers having such legal relation...

Bought by KSLU, KUHF, and WTJU


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have begun to spread throughout music applications, from conveying pictures to transferring ownership documents. The buy...

Bought by KSLU, KUHF, and WTJU


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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In unusual cases, such as the US capture of Gen Manuel Noriega and the ongoing battles for Hong Kong’s autonomy from China, music has played a prom...

Bought by KSLU, KUHF, and WTJU


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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This iconic song, known for its wicked organ riff, was never credited to the member who added the distinctive sound. After nearly 3 decades, he sue...

Bought by KSLU and KUHF


  • Added: Nov 09, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 2
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This class examines two unusual and pressing legal rock and roll issues: what is Revenge Rock, involving The Beatles, and what is the legal signifi...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Dec 28, 2020
  • Length: 04:59
  • Purchases: 3
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More than a dozen years after James Brown’s death, his estate has been tied up in unusual legal problems, involving his marriage and his messy life...

Bought by KSLU, WTJU, and KUHF


  • Added: Dec 28, 2020
  • Length: 04:58
  • Purchases: 3