This critical study highlights the ways in which issues of intellectual property are driving the contemporary media economy, from disputes over downloading music from the Internet to negotiations over David Beckham's image rights. As Richard Haynes demonstrates, the media industry exploits copyright and trademarks in new and seemingly boundless ways, whether it's the blockbuster movie "Harry Potter" or the successful children's television program "Bob the Builder."
The book focuses on: - The underlying importance of intellectual property rights to the media industry - The impact of digitalization on the protection of copyright - The response of the music industry to digital distribution and copyright piracy - The emergence of celebrity image rights - Issues of copyright and the Internet

Richard Haynes is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Stirling Media Research Institute, university of Stirling. He is author of Media Rights and Intellectual Property (2005) and co-author with Raymond Boyle of Football in the New Media Age (2004) and The Football Imagination: The Rise of Football Fanzine Culture (1995). He has published widely on media and sport, and has received research awards from the Carnegie Trust, the AHRC and the British Academy in his research on the history of sports broadcasting.

1. Introduction: Understanding Media Rights; 2. Intellectual Property Rights and the Media; 3. Copyright in the Digital Age; 4. Music and Copyright; 5. Broadcasting Rights to Sport; 6. Independent Television Producers and Media Rights; 7. Celebrity and Image Rights; 8. Intellectual Property and the Internet; 9. Media Rights and the Commons; Bibliography.