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While the laws concerning sexual assault accusations are not confined to the world of entertainment law, it sometimes seems so. Serious attention was paid to the trial of Bill Cosby and trials looming for film producer/former concert impresario Harvey Weinstein. There have also been damning documentaries on singers R. Kelly and Michael Jackson.

When I was a young boy, first falling in love with rock and roll music, the only messages I wanted to hear were on commercial radio and television. Today, there have never been as many available pathways to getting your message out to your audience, particularly the focused merchandising highways facilitated by social media platforms.

Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” is a classic song, instantly recognizable to the many fans who recall the band in their heyday. They were sued for copying the music of Spirit, and the song “Taurus.” In a widely-watched trial, a jury found that no theft had occurred. However, several years later, the Ninth Circuit granted a rehearing en banc, so the case will be reheard by a larger panel of eleven judges. The correct original decision should be affirmed.

One of the changing norms and business practices of rock and roll has been how artists go about releasing their music to their fans and to the world. Virtually all bands prior to 1970 would release single 45s, compile them into an album, and then tour in support of the new album. While the original standard practice of singles and albums continues—morphed by the prevalence of streaming musical digital bytes to computer screens and a growing number of devices—there is evident a growing number of different release strategies.

If there were any single musical event from my youth that I wish I could travel to in a time-machine to attend, it would be Woodstock, the calamitous event that somehow came together against all odds in August, 1969. It attracted an audience between 400,000 and one half million, and became a financial success only because of the popularity of the iconic film and its many musical products, still popular after 50 years.

The late economics professor Alan B. Krueger published his last book, just after his untimely death, "Rockonomics, A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life." As a reading assignment for my Class, I will move us through the entire book, over the next few years, chapter by chapter.

Eminem is arguably among the best and most successful rappers in rock and roll, still on an incredible career trajectory that excites and provokes, constituting an important body of work. But he is also among the most litigious entertainers, both giving it out and taking it in a wide variety of civil and criminal cases.

Charles Manson’s life and death occasioned several interesting legal issues. Quentin Tarantino’s fascinating Manson movie also reveals the role of rock music in the history of his cultish Manson Family. He wrote a song appropriated by The Beach Boys, and released one album with 14 songs, half of them unbelievably covered by other singers, making it perhaps the creepiest album provenance of any other rock album.

This show highlights the rise of movies across many platforms, going behind the scenes on legal topics related to music and musicians.

Another in a series of topics related to the law and business of the music industry, as discussed in the book, "Rockonomics." This show focuses upon issues of merchandizing.