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The late, great Marvin Gaye’s children brought a copyright infringement suit against several artists involved in the popular Blurred Lines song, in essence claiming the songwriting team had copied the “style” and “feel” of their father’s Got to Give It Up. So far, they have won, big. There are also international laws concerning copyright infringement, as when the conservative New Zealand National Party lost a copyright case to Eminem for more than $500,000.

If there has been a single social movement that has recently taken root and shaped its setting, it is surely the Hashtag ME, TOO phenomenon, calling out rapists and sexual harassers—first in the entertainment industry, but reaching Wall Street, corporate misbehavior, academia, athletics, politics, clergy, and even the judiciary.

The horrific mass shooting that killed almost 60 attendees and wounded another 850 concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas has forever changed the insurance policies for concerts, including so-called PVT policies (political violence and terrorism).

In the year 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice approved a merger between the two largest live music businesses—to be governed by a complex consent decree setting out the division of labor under which the large concert promoting Live Nation and the huge ticket-seller Ticketmaster could organize their mammoth enterprise. Together, the merged companies now controls the ticket architecture at more than 4/5ths of the country’s 100 largest music arena venues.

We have many platforms of social media, and most people think we are better off for these connections, but a growing number recognize the false intimacy can invade privacy, steal our personal and financial secrets, share embarrassing data and pictures, and hack our election systems and troll the unwary. One can reasonably wonder about the inherent tradeoffs between knowing more about more people, and relinquishing our autonomy.

A computerized song search from licensors BMI and ASCAP—turns up more than 140 song titles with the words “law,” “court/courtroom,” "lawyer," or "attorney." And judges, including the US Supreme Court do cite popular music in opinions, sometimes surprisingly so.

I review the various legal issues that arise when enormously-productive artists and authors make and record music or write material that never sees the light of day, or exists in archival fashion, with multiple versions and unreleased songs and stories. Many years later, they are remastered or reconstituted and released, often in conjunction with special dates or events.

Given the growing number of terrorist activities in the US and throughout the world, it would have been astounding and itself newsworthy if performances and music events had not been the target of terrorists, bent upon attracting the regular news attention paid to these horrible actions, and intent on threatening our well-being and sources of our entertainment.

Back in the day, album cover art was the subject of many youthful conversations. In the 144 square inches of olden days, bands could fully display their artistic urges, and that real estate became a branding tool and PR opportunity. Much litigation ensued.

Artists do not always have control over or reap the financial rewards of musical festivals, but the successful alternative models are scarce, and have a poor rate of return. What are the alternatives?