The Power Shift from Label to Artists

Posted Aug 26, 2025 | Law Student Blog,

By Alexis Trimm, Honors College of Arts and Science Student at the University of Missouri-Columbia The music industry has long been shaped by a rocky relationship between artists and record labels. For decades, labels acted as the gatekeepers of music in exchange for owning master recordings and controlling the...

Why Mediation Remains Underutilized

Posted Aug 24, 2025 | Law Student Blog,

By Omowunmi (Wunmi) Odeja, Washington University School of Law, Juris Doctor Candidate, 2027 Although mediation can be a valuable tool for resolving intellectual property (IP) and other disputes, it is underutilized by creatives here in St. Louis. Mediation offers flexibility and freedom, something unique in its nature, qualities rarely...

Copyright vs. Campaigns: A Breakdown of Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue” vs. Donald Trump

Posted Aug 24, 2025 | Law Student Blog,

By Alexis Trimm, Honors College of Arts and Science Student at the University of Missouri-Columbia In a legal dispute between an artist and a politician, Guyanese-British singer Eddy Grant successfully sued the Trump campaign for copyright infringement after his song “Electric Avenue” was used without permission in a 2020...

HITS Act: New Tax Law Will Benefit Independent Musicians and Producers

Posted Aug 14, 2025 | Law Student Blog,

By Olivia Miller, Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School, Juris Doctor Candidate, 2027 The music industry is celebrating the recent passage of a new federal tax law that will allow independent musicians and producers to deduct up to $150,000 in sound recording expenses incurred within a single tax year....

The Legality of Livelihood: Protecting Artists in the Music Industry

Posted Aug 06, 2025 | Law Student Blog,

By Anya Liu, Pre-Law Student and English Major at The University of California, Berkeley “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music,” Chappell Roan declared, during her acceptance speech for the title...

Piracy is Piracy: How Copyright Infringement Turned Disney and Universal Into Allies

Posted Jul 23, 2025 | Law Student Blog,

By Olivia Miller, Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School, Juris Doctor Candidate, 2027 For nearly a century, The Walt Disney Company and Universal Studios have been major competitors in the entertainment industry. In 1927, Walt Disney and his animators created a character called “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.” Disney would...

The Legal Side of Product Placement in Film and Television Shows

Posted Jun 26, 2025 | Law Student Blog,

By Olivia Miller, Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School, Juris Doctor Candidate, 2027 From Reese’s Pieces in E.T. to Pepsi in Wayne’s World, product placement in films and television shows has had a long-lasting impact on American culture and consumerism. According to a study conducted by BENlabs, 75% of...

Borrow First, Justify Later: AI’s Copyright Playbook

Posted Jun 24, 2025 | Law Student Blog,

By Omowunmi (Wunmi) Odeja, Washington University School of Law, Juris Doctor Candidate, 2027 Meta Platforms, Inc. has been sued by 13 authors for allegedly using pirated copies of their novels taken from online shadow libraries like LibGen and Books3 to train its AI model, LLaMa. As seen in filings...

Are Game Streamers Infringers?

Posted Oct 20, 2024 | Law Student Blog,

By Kevin Xu, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, Juris Doctor Candidate, 2026 Video game streaming is a thriving business. With a computer, or even a cell phone, anyone can stream and play all kinds of video games. Twitch, the world’s leading live stream platform for gamers,...

The Right to Prevent Artwork Destruction

Posted Aug 09, 2024 | Law Student Blog,

By Z’necia Hall, Saint Louis University School of Law, Juris Doctor Candidate, 2025 Who has the right to destroy artwork? Artwork is usually made to be shared. Whether that is through selling pieces of artwork for private use or installing pieces as public art, the purpose is for others...

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