ABSTRACT
It is against this backdrop that American record and music publishing companies (often owned by the same parent company), whether or not they are ultimately owned by corporations outside the US, are partaking in a flurry of legal activity that amounts to a cultural policy by default. That is, as cases involving the music business, trade, copyright, and immigration law are decided, precedents are set which affect the quantity and quality of popular music entering and leaving the US by legal means. The cases are argued, as should probably be expected, largely in terms of their perceived impact on the profit/loss margins of the parties involved, and rarely (possibly never) in regard to their impact on cultural production and consumption.
