Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management at St. Edward’s College in Austin TX, leads a discussion at Loyola University, New Orleans about how copyright law applies to sound recordings in the USA, how digital media and digital rights management relate to copyright, and what the future may hold. He explains what rights the purchaser of a sound recording has, why record companies love digital rights management, how Creative Commons may transform copyright law, how new technology and distribution methods are making current law obsolete, and how current events are shaping the future of copyright law.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edward’s College in Austin TX, explains what a “work for hire” deal is in the context of a recording or songwriting contract, and why it’s beneficial for artists to control their own copyrights instead of entering into a work for hire arrangement.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edward’s College in Austin TX, explains the Constitutional underpinnings of the American copyright system, and discusses some of the ramifications of the system. He also notes ways in which some copyright holders are trying to “game” this system.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edward’s College in Austin TX, discusses the concept of “precedent” and how it relates to copyright law, which in turn underpins the entire music industry as we know it. He discusses the origins of modern law in English common law, and why it is critical that modern courts stick to the 1,000 years of precedents that have come before when formulating their decisions. He also analyzes the apparent breakdown in precedent that is facing modern copyright law, as technology and new distribution methods get far out ahead of the law’s ability to encompass them.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edward’s College in Austin TX, discusses various possible futures for copyright in the USA, from abolishing it outright to modifying the law to better account for digital distribution and duplication.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edward’s College in Austin TX, defines the parameters of copyright law as it applies to sound recordings in the USA, and identifies many areas in which the law is vague or incomplete. He also discusses how the Copyright Act of 1976 changed copyright law, and addresses the role of the federal government and private bodies in enforcing copyright law.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edward’s College in Austin TX, discusses what the current state of the record business implies for the future. He addresses the problem of pricing – how much is too little? how much is too expensive? – and the ways in which digital music is much more difficult for companies to capture, control and monetize than traditional physical media.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management Program at St. Edward’s College in Austin TX, discusses the current state of copyright law as regards sampling of existing works. Beginning with the 1991 court case “Grand Upright Music, Ltd v. Warner Bros. Records, Inc.” which for more than a decade seemed to have settled the question of sampling’s illegality, Rains discusses new court decisions and legal developments which in the very near future may transform how sampling relates to copyright law in the United States.

Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, discusses the program he runs and discusses the challenges involved with combining a traditional MBA with a thorough grounding in new media, and delivering all this to a pool of students who are not traditional MBA candidates. He also engages in an extended explanation of how copyright in the USA evolved to where it is today – from the copyright clauses in the Constitution and the roots of the modern music industry in the 1909 Copyright Act to what terms like “fair use” and “compulsory license” actually mean, and whether copy protection technologies, legislation like the DMCA and regulatory bodies like Sound Exchange do more to help or hurt the overarching goals of American copyright law as enshrined in the Constitution.

Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in Digital Media Management at St. Edward’s University in Austin TX, discusses the program and what it offers to students over and above the standard fare of business degrees (such as finance, accounting and marketing). Rains also defines exactly what Digital Media Management is, what it means, and why Austin is going to be an important location for digital media production in the years to come.

Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, introduces the program he runs, which is the first of its kind in the USA. He discusses the local music, film and gaming industries in and around Austin, and how his program is geared toward creating managers who can bridge the gap between traditional business, entrepreneurship, and new-media and emerging technology ventures that have yet to be proven moneymakers.

Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, discusses how his program’s curriculum is geared toward a different student base than is a traditional MBA program, what qualities and career goals are favored in prospective students, and what skills someone who completes the degree can expect to have gained.

Russell Rains, a lawyer and Director of the Digital Media Management MBA Program at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX, discusses how someone get their music placed in video game, or even make a career out of doing so. He also explains the limitations of relying on such a scheme for your income.

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.

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, 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.

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, 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 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, shares some predictions, opinions and educated guesses about the future of the music business – and why, if you’re brand-new to the industry – this is the best time in history to have a career in music.