Entertainment Law Research Guide

Before you begin... When researching an issue or area of law for the first time, we suggest you begin with a secondary source such as a legal encyclopedia, legal treatise, or ALR rather than searching first for primary law.  This is typically much more efficient, as secondary sources will lead researchers directly to key statutes, cases, and regulations and will provide plain language explanations of the landscape of primary law to get you quickly oriented with respect to your subject matter. Select secondary sources on entertainment law issues are listed on the secondary sources page of this guide.

For more information dealing with specific areas of entertainment law, also consult our Sports Law Research Guide, Art Law Research Guide, Music Law Research Guide, Trademark Law Research Guide, and/or Copyright Research Guide. 

In addition, the following database collections collect both primary and secondary sources:

As noted above, we suggest you begin with a secondary source before you begin searching directly for case law.  If you know what state or federal statute is relevant to your research, another good place to begin your search for case law is an annotated version of the relevant statutory code (such as on Westlaw or Lexis).  For each relevant statutory section, first reference the "Case Notes" (on Lexis)/"Notes of Decision" (on Westlaw) for a short list of cases curated by the editors and organized by topic.  Next, reference the cases listed via the citator tool ("Citing References" on Westlaw; "Shepardize" on Lexis).  

For information on researching U.S. case law generally, see Georgetown Law Library's Case Law Research Guide or the Case Law Research Tutorial.

For information on researching U.S. statutory law generally, see Georgetown Law Library's Statutes Research Guide or the Statutory Research Tutorial. Additional sources for finding statutes dealing with entertainment law include the following:

• Title 17 of the United States Code contains the text of current federal copyright law. The following is a selected list of important copyright statutes:
  • Copyright Act of 1909, Public Law 60-349, 35 Stat. 1075 (1909)
  • Sound Recording Act of 1971, Pub. L. No. 140, 85 Stat. 39 (1971)
  • Copyright Act of 1976, Pub. L. No. 94-553, 90 Stat. 2541 (1976)
  • Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56 (1996)
  • Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Pub L. No. 105-304, 112 Stat. 2860 (1998)
  • Enforcement of Intellectual Rights Act of 2008 (Pro-IP Act), Pub. L. No. 110-403, 122 Stat. 4256 (2008)
     
• Title 15 of the U.S. Code contains the text of three major antitrust statutes:
  • Sherman Antitrust Act, 26 Stat. 209 (1890)
  • Clayton Act, Pub. L. No. 63-212, 38 Stat. 730 (1914)
  • Federal Trade Commission Act, 38 Stat. 717 (1914)
     
• Other relevant state and federal statutes include:
  • Trademark Act of 1946 ("Lanham Act"), Pub. L. No.79-489, 60 Stat. 427 (1946)
  • California Civil Code Section 3344 (Right of publicity)
  • California Penal Code Section 653w (Failure to disclose origin of recording or audiovisual work)
  • New York Civil Rights Law Sec. 50 & 51 (Right of privacy and action for damages)

For information on researching U.S. regulations generally, see Georgetown Law Library's Administrative Law Research Guide or the Administrative Law Tutorial.

Select federal regulations relevant to the entertainment industry include:

• 37 C.F.R. secs. 200-299
  Regulations promulgated by the Copyright Office, Library of Congress.
• 37 C.F.R. secs. 300-399
  Regulations promulgated by the Copyright Royalty Board, Library of Congress.
• 47 C.F.R. secs. 70-79
  Regulations promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission dealing with broadcast radio services.