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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.

I had an email file about auctioning off of various rock and roll memorabilia. After a bit of research, I discovered this little niche had many interesting and odd legal issues that arose in the parallel universe of auction, sales, theft, social media bidding sites, and associated nooks and crannies, and a fair number of schnooks.

I teach both entertainment law and immigration, so the intersection between these two worlds is always of interest to me, and in the shrinking world of concert venues and border crossings, a number of important cases and issues have arisen.

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.

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.

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.

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 growth of documentaries about groups, individual rock and rollers, musical events, or the music business indicate a wide audience for these films. The astounding growth of such rockdocs is evidence of the fascination with the topics, the widespread availability of recording equipment, including cell phones in some noteworthy film projects, and the rise of venues over and above the traditional movie theater—all have combined to make these years the Golden Years of RockDocs.

The pandemic hit entertainment and entertainment law hard. And as venues re-open, there have been disastrous health results and legal implications.