The authors and publisher recently updated this work with an expanded and reworked second edition. The twenty seven chapters cover not only the aforementioned subject of credit, but also explore in detail the subjects of entertainment industry structure, risk, anti-competitive practices, distributors, unfair competition, rights of privacy and publicity, libel, droit moral, artistic control and compensation. The authors also include one volume devoted to various forms used by attorneys within the entertainment industry.

Entertainment Law is neither fish nor fowl, it is devoted exclusively to the title's topic. As a treatise on the actual subject, it is second to none. Even the estimable Entertainment Industry Contracts (edited by Donald Farber and published by Matthew Bender & Co., 1991) cannot compare with Entertainment Law for pure reference and educational value. Although Entertainment Industry Contracts has the edge in forms with its side-by-side clauses with commentary, Entertainment Law excels at educating the reader in industry practice, traditions and case law.

For the reader to understand what Entertainment Law is all about, he or she must understand that entertainment law is really almost all types of law applied to an entertainment industry context.[1] It might be pushing this notion somewhat to say that the practice of family law is entertainment law but even there a producer's divorce might take on important aspects of entertainment law: who receives the copyright or credit for the infomercial becomes as important as who retains custody of the children. Thankfully the authors do not spread entertainment law so thinly that it must cover every situation where a person in the entertainment industry may tread. Similarly, one working in the steel or computer industries practices law in much the same way--general principles of law applied to a specific industry to answer questions within a specific context. At the outset the authors of Entertainment Law recognize this important distinction (they use construction and banking as an example): "The different appearances of construction law, banking law or entertainment law are due to the business practices and forces at work in each industry which, by interacting with general legal theories, give rise to a body of law representative of and applicable to that industry." This recognition means that Entertainment Law takes on a wide variety of legal topics save one very important one which is crucial to the practice of entertainment law. To their credit the authors do not attempt to explain copyright; to their further credit the work blissfully lacks yet another reproduction of copyright forms and circulars in unreadable five point microprint.

So the practice of entertainment law, like any other law practice directed towards a particular industry, means that the practitioner must know and love/hate? the industry. This means the practitioner should regularly peruse industry periodicals, know who's who as well as understand the history of the industry, its present and future course. Entertainment Law understates this concept. Although the work does not include gossip it regularly gives examples from industry (how much James Michener's last novel fetched) and cites to such rags as the New York Times and Variety. Since this book gets down on the boards with the hoofers, it is easy to read and understand. Make no mistake, though, Entertainment Law contains hundreds (if not thousands) of citations to cases and law review articles from throughout the country. The thoroughness of the work inspires confidence that the authors know their subject.

Entertainment Law devotes the entire final volume to 75 law forms in five major entertainment areas: motion pictures, television, live theatrical, music and print publishing. These forms would normally constitute a valuable addition to the text but they are outdated in one major way: the publisher should offer the forms electronically (in Macintosh and IBM formats) either on multiple floppy disks or CD-ROM. Let's face facts: forms on paper wastes human resources and trees; they also take up valuable, expensive library space. Attorneys naturally underutilize forms on paper. Entry into the computer is a time consuming task. Issuing forms in an electronic format would increase their utility many times over their current usefulness.

For the entertainment law practitioner, Entertainment Law will serve as a fine reference in litigation and negotiation. The authors' contributions as a resource on the various aspects of entertainment law deserve credit before the main title. Let's call it Selz, Simensky and Acton Present Entertainment Law.

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Copyright © 1992 - 1997 Richard J. Greenstone. All rights reserved. The green diamond device is a registered trademark and Law Bytesis a trademark of Richard J. Greenstone.

This article was first published in 10 The Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, No. 1, Spring 1992.