Copyright in the Cultural Industries

A great deal has been written on the theoretical aspects of copyright and the cultural industries but less so on the applied side - how copyright law works in practice. How do lawyers, firms and artists manage and administer copyright and what economic and legal problems does this raise? In recent times in particular, technological inventions appear to have outpaced the development of copyright law. This volume addresses these issues and looks at the serious implications for copyright policy in the future. Several of the authors question the efficacy of copyright, which is increasingly regarded as benefiting multinational corporations rather than individual authors and performers. Others are less critical of copyright per se, but question its ability to meet the new challenges of a digital era. Some of the specific issues covered include: law and international transactions of copyrighted material; economic analysis of copyright and freedom of expression; music licensing in the digital age; the role of copyright in stimulating cultural development; Internet distribution of copyright material; and the problems of licensing museum images.