Playing with Rights: Music, Games & AI

Playing with Rights is the first book-length work to provide a comprehensive legal analysis of the data-driven convergence between music and video games arising from the use of music in interactive entertainment, the author—a practicing intellectual property and entertainment lawyer who is also a guitarist and lifelong gamer—explores in detail the legal, cultural, and technological questions at the heart of this convergence, and examines the most significant recent transactions, disputes, and regulatory developments shaping this rapidly evolving field.

Immersive gaming experiences, music streaming, and AI are transforming entertainment law in ways we are only beginning to grasp.

What’s in this book:

Recognizing the broad spectrum of relevant legal issues, the author’s approach combines doctrinal rigor with practical industry insight. Through the lenses of music licensing, rhythm games, user-generated content, artificial intelligence, virtual performance, and ‘metaverse’ experiences, coverage includes detailed perspectives on the following and more:

• video game and music streaming business models
• end-user license agreements (EULAs), terms of service, and contractual governance
• copyright ownership of user-generated content
• AI-generated music and copyrightability
• hybrid human–AI works
• deepfakes, AI voice cloning, and legislative responses
• data privacy and user profiling in rhythm game platforms, and
• the legal position of distribution and performance in the platform economy

The analysis is multi-jurisdictional, examining the legal frameworks of the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Latin American countries.

How this will help you:

This essential resource provides practitioners, scholars, and industry professionals with a single comprehensive reference that eliminates the need to piece together fragmented sources across entertainment law, copyright law, and technology law publications. It will serve as a preeminent practical guide for numerous professionals, including intellectual property and entertainment law practitioners, business development executives in the gaming and music industries, music publishers, and officials in music collecting societies and sports federations. It will also be of inestimable value to academics and researchers in the fields of intellectual property, media, technology, data protection, and privacy, as well as to policymakers addressing AI, copyright, and digital content regulation.