We’re bring this course back to the Big Apple for the fourth time since the inception of the conference series, giving the music and legal communities yet another opportunity to interact with industry advocates and influencers on the entertainment industry’s most pressing legal and policy issues.

Thursday, March 1 • 1-5:30 PM

Offices of Greenberg Traurig
Metlife Building, 200 Park Avenue, 15th Floor

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Sponsors

Media Sponsors include NJVLA and Volunteer Lawyers For The Arts
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Registration
Save $50 off regular reates by submitting your registration by the Friday, February 10 early bird deadline.

Regular rates are $179 for members and $229 for non-members.

Students can register for $49. Early bird rates do not apply to student registrations.

Click here to register.

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Agenda
1-1:15 PM – Opening Remarks

1:15-2:15 PM
PANEL 1
Bankruptcy and Copyright Assets: Minimizing the Effect on Third-Party Licensees
When a copyright owner files for bankruptcy, all stakeholders in that party’s licenses are affected. Risks are ample, and there may be new opportunities also. This panel will discuss the transferability of copyright assets that are subject to a bankruptcy proceeding, licensees’ continued access to copyrighted assets during bankruptcy, and how these and related issues can be addressed in licensing agreements. Our panelists include experts in entertainment industry finance and restructuring, including counsel to Citibank with regard to the EMI bankruptcy.

• Moderator: Joel Schoenfeld, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp (Partner)
• Speakers:
• Barry Slotnick, Loeb & Loeb (Partner and Chair, IP and Ent. Litigation Practice Group)
• Elaine D. Ziff, Skadden Arps (Counsel, IP and Technology Group)

2:15-3:15 PM
PANEL 2
Licensing Musical Works: Varied Approaches to Fixing a Broken System
This panel will explore proposed solutions for streamlining the complex and often cost-prohibitive process of licensing musical works, including legislative amendments to the Copyright Act and a more comprehensive and easily-navigable administrative system for granting licenses. The members of this panel will discuss the viability of these proposed solutions from the viewpoint of publishers, music service licensees, and third party advocates who have commissioned reports on licensing reform.

• Moderator: Bobby Rosenbloum, Greenberg Traurig (Partner)
• Speakers:
• Danielle Aguirre, NMPA (Vice President & Senior Counsel)
• Cindy Charles, Cindy Charles Consulting (Principal, former SVP/General Counsel, MediaNet)
• Michael Simon, Harry Fox Agency (SVP of Business Affairs, General Counsel and Chief Strategic Officer)
• Michael Weinberg, Public Knowledge (Staff Attorney)

3:15-3:30 PM – Break

3:30-4:30 PM
PANEL 3
Legislative Solutions to Online Piracy – Dissecting SOPA/PIPA/OPEN Act Provisions
The recent lobbying battle over SOPA and PIPA is reminiscent of decades-old legislative fights about the legality of VCRs, the Motion Picture Anti-Piracy Act, the DMCA, the Induce Act, and similar proposals that sought to inhibit piracy without being overbroad. In this discussion — including representatives of recording companies and the Internet community — we will avoid re–hashing old battles and instead focus on the specific provisions of the recently-proposed bills. We will discuss the adequacy, legality, and potential collateral damage of these provisions and how they would differ in practice. We will also discuss the MegaUpload case, which raises the issue of whether the current legal structure already provides adequate tools to combat foreign-based piracy. Finally, we will talk about how the various stakeholders have, or intend to, collaborate in order to produce more targeted legislation.

• Moderator: Sarah Rosenbaum, RPG Strategies
• Speakers:
• Marc Cimino, Warner Bros. Records (SVP and Head of Business & Legal Affairs)
• Rich Bengloff, A2IM (President)
• Markham Erikson, Open Internet Coalition (Executive Director)
• Michael Petricone, Consumer Electronics Association (Sr. VP, Government Affairs)

4:30-5:30 PM
PANEL 4
Antitrust in Media & Entertainment: The Fine Line between Survival and Monopoly
As media companies restructure and collaborate in response to economic and digital challenges, antitrust concerns must always be considered. This panel will discuss antitrust issues in the context of recent transactions in the media and entertainment industries, including the pending sales of the recorded music and publishing divisions of EMI, the LiveNation/Ticketmaster merger, the Comcast/NBCUniversal acquisition and media company collaborations such as Hulu and TVAnywhere. The panelists have been directly involved with these and other antitrust reviews and will discuss how regulators view competition in a digital world, and the challenging balance between cooperative efforts to reinvent digital business models and avoiding anti-competitive behavior.

• Moderator: Jon Potter, RPG Strategies (Principal)
• Speakers:
• Robert P. Davis, Venable LLP (Of Counsel, former Attorney-Advisor to FTC Chairman Leibowitz)
• Wayne Dale Collins, Shearman & Sterling (Partner)
• Jeffrey Prisbrey, Charles River Associates (Principal)

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CLE Credits
CLE credits have been applied for through the New York State Office of Court Administration and its CLE Board.

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Scholarships
A limited number of financial scholarships are available for this event and will be given on a first-come, first-served basis. Scholarships are intended for persons who are currently unemployed or can prove financial hardship. To be considered for a scholarship, please contact Pat Daly at daly@narm.com.