From the Editors

Entertainment Law is located within a dynamic and rapidly expanding area, in terms of both academic scholarship and legal practice. It is a subject that has now appeared within the undergraduate legal curriculum and perhaps more significantly within postgraduate study in both professional and academic courses. The broad aim of this journal is to provide an environment for considered discourse of this growing field of study from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Whilst the underpinning of Entertainment Law is unashamedly academic, we also wish to encourage submissions that stress the practical dimension to the area – in its entirety the journal aims to be a forum through which legal scholarship’s relationship with the practice of entertainment law may be explored.

There are many sides to the subject and it appears in many guises, often under generic umbrellas, such as law and cultural studies or law and popular culture. We use the term ‘entertainment’ in its broadest form, embracing all aspects of regulation within the entertainment industries. Whilst areas such as art, music, literature, sports, film and media obviously fall within its domain, Entertainment Law will also cover issues concerning the theatre, computers, the internet, fashion and many other aspects of leisure. Our intended coverage is, then, broader than law and popular culture and the overall approach is an inclusive one.

This first issue has pieces from both legal academics and those in other disciplines and the material illustrates evidence of important and thoughtprovoking research. Furthermore the scope is international, as well it should be, with work from Australia, Canada and the United States as well as the United Kingdom. The full-length articles focus upon the music industry (Lee Marshall’s piece on Metallica and Morality), the leisure economy (David Miers’ OFGAM? OFBET?), sporting merchandise (John McMillen and Ray Schneider’s piece on Sports Celebrity Photographs) and the regulation of protest within a sporting environment (Ian Warren’s Governance, Protest and Sport). These pieces have all been through a thorough and anonymous peer-review process, as will articles submitted to us in the future.

The writing in the Interventions section shows both how broadly ‘entertainment’ might be construed (ranging from the erosion of school games to challenges facing the Olympic movement in the global age) and gives an indication of what may be submitted for inclusion in this section of the journal. We anticipate that Interventions might include case reports, recent developments and shorter articles, but this is not an exhaustive list and we will be open to negotiation about content and contributions. In particular, this will be an area where practitioner input is particularly apposite. There may also be scope for these contributions to be subsequently converted into full articles, for Entertainment Law or elsewhere. Within this part of the journal our relationship with LAWTEL has enabled us to publish brief details of the most important recent cases in the field. There is also a table of articles, which provides details of recent publications that may be of interest to readers. We have, of course, made space for Book Reviews and potential contributors, wishing to submit reviews, should contact the Reviews Editor, Dr Mark James, in the first instance.

The majority of us spend large chunks of leisure time and income on entertainment and at its root is pleasure and enjoyment. Writing about the regulation of entertainment ought to reflect this pleasurable aspect and we hope readers will find this first issue at least appealing, if not ‘entertaining’.  Any comments or thoughts however critical would be most welcome and we hope that you may see an opportunity to offer some contribution whether a full blown article, an Intervention or a book review. Most importantly we thank Frank Cass Publishers for their support.

Steve Greenfield

David McArdle

Guy Osborn

Contents

• From the Editors

Articles

• Lee Marshall
  
• David Miers
  
• John D. McMillen and Raymond G. Schneider
  
• Ian Warren
  
• Hilary A. Findlay and Rachel Corbett
  

Interventions

• Sarah Thomson
  
• Mark James and Fiona Deeley
  

Book Reviews

• Rosemary Auchmuty
• Mark James
• Martin Kretschmer
• David McArdle
• Michael Skrein
• Andrew Blake