Internet resources: “The Discography: Legal Encyclopedia of Popular Music” website

Fans, musicians, journalists, researchers and anyone else interested in music can see how the courts dealt with this question and nearly any other legal issue involving the music industry at “The Dicsography: Legal Encyclopedia of Popular Music”.

The site was created by Loren Wells, JD, musician and recent graduate of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and is supported by the Center for Empirical Research in the Law (CERL) at the School of Law.

The site’s database — the most elaborate of its kind — covers 2,400 court opinions spanning nearly 200 years of the music industry. The opinions, ranging from copyrights and contracts to taxes, torts and more, are fully summarized and searchable by a number of variables such as artist, location, timeframe issue and more.

CERL provides the technical platform to deliver Wells’ database to anyone who would like to access it.

“The Discography is exciting because it’s an extraordinary collection of information that did not previously exist,” says Andrew D. Martin, PhD, CERL director and professor of law.

“The value of the database is immense,” says Martin, who also is professor and chair of the Department of Political Science in Arts & Sciences. “Through the lens of music cases we’re able to understand a great deal of American law.”