Preface to the First Edition

We are in the midst of a media revolution. There are more ways for people to communicate than ever before—television and radio, cable and satellite, telephone and cellular, newspapers and magazines, the Internet. Each means of reaching an audience has one ultimate goal: providing viewers, listeners, or readers with content—news and information, entertainment and opinions. More than at any time in our history, the value of content has skyrocketed. Whether it is box office favorites, news reports of special events, reruns of TV sitcoms, home videos, or scribblings on e-mail, people covet the content they own and seek new outlets for releasing it. Thus, while the channels of communication are expanding, it is what's on those channels that reflects their ultimate value.

This book explains, for those in the media and those who care about communications, what they need to know about content. It takes the laws of intellectual property (IP)—copyright and trademark—and translates them into plain English. It helps answer those puzzling questions about what can be used on the air or in print, and who really owns photographs, videos, storylines, and titles.

While these IP laws can be confusing, they are central to the media's effective operation. From program direceors to advertisers, from scriptwriters to online access providers, from stringers to students, from home videocamophiles to Hollywood directors, the rules that we have set up to regulate the way we create and use content affect us all. Those on the front lines, whose jobs are to put programs and information together, are under the greatest stress. This book adds measures of understanding regarding the legal principles that shape our most precious commodity, the fruit of our intellect.

For creators and users of programming and content—which is just about everyone these days—the laws of copyrights and trademarks are the rules by which we organize the products of our intellectual efforts. These laws are challenged by an electronic system of communication that makes the ability to copy and disseminate, as well as to alter without a hint, simple and universal. At the same time, there are major realignments taking place among the owners of the media industries. Alliances between telephone and cable companies and acquisitions of television networks by movie studios are making current headlines. The passage of the 1996 telecommunications law reform has been lauded as one of the most significant legislative accomplishments of the Clinton administration. What are the economic forces driving these changes, and how will they affect what we see and hear on the media? The pivotal element is content. With the knowledge you gain from this book, you will be better equipped to face the coming challenges in communications.