Remarks From the Chair
I hope everyone had a good first quarter of 2023.
EASL had a great year in 2022 and we look forward to continuing that in 2023, which started in January at our Annual Meeting. Below is a brief overview of what transpired at the end of 2022 and the start of this year.
Art Law
We finished the year with a discussion on “Appraising Fine Art,” which addressed the hiring of qualified appraisers of fine and decorative art. The panel discussed such considerations as the qualifications of an individual to appraise art, the requirements for a qualified appraisal report, and what happens if the appraiser hired is not qualified as legally competent or qualified as an expert. Thank you to Michael McCullough from Cardozo Law School for moderating and to speakers Charles T. Rosoff from Appraisal Services Associates and Lisa Desmarais from The Appraisal Foundation for sharing their insights on this fascinating topic. Thank you to Judith Prowda, former EASL chair, Carol Steinberg, and Paul Cossu for producing this great event.
Music Business Law Conference
Last fall, our annual Music Business Law Conference (MBLC) was held in four sessions, covering a wide range of subjects in the music industry. The conference began with the “Washington D.C. Update” discussing current and proposed legislation on the music business. It was moderated by Bill Werde, director of the Bandier Program for Recording and Entertainment Industries, the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Thank you to Bill for moderating and to speakers Mitch Glazier, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, David M. Israelite, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, and Bart Herbison, executive director of the Nashville Songwriters Association International. The second panel, also moderated by Bill Werde, on “Key Trends in the Music Business,” discussed key developments in the business of music. Thank you again to Bill for moderating and to speakers Karen Allen, CEO/co-Founder of Infinite Album, Angie Rho, from CAA, Peter Sinclair, CEO/co-Founder of beatBread, and Nick Breen, partner at Reed Smith.
Session two of the program, “Ethics – How Many Hats – Lawyer and Manager and Other Potential Conflicts” discussed the many roles that attorneys may have, aside from legal advisor, and the ethical considerations in each of those roles. Thank you to Diane Krausz, Law Offices of Diane Krausz & former EASL chair, for moderating and to speakers Joseph L. Serling, from Serlings Rooks Hunter McKoy Worob & Averill LLP and Nicole Hyland, from Frankfurt Kurnit Klein and Selz PC. The second panel, led by Barry Skidelsky, former EASL chair, “That’s The Ticket! Ticket Pricing (and Issues) for Concerts and Broadway” addressed event ticketing including general structure, dynamic pricing, and debacles from various perspectives. Thank you to Barry and to speakers Gregg Arst, CEO/founder of Tanna, Inc. and Josh Baron from Relix Magazine.
The next session, “Music Licensing in the Metaverse,” took a close look at how music is licensed in the Metaverse and what the future holds in licensing models for virtual worlds. Thank you to moderator Imraan Farukhi from Syracuse University and to speakers Deborah Mannis-Gardner from DMG Clearances, Inc., Stacey Haber from Web3 Music Rights Group, and David Fritz, partner at Boyranski Fritz LLP and co-founder of Creative Intell, Inc. The second panel, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor – The Right That Is So Important to United States Artists and the Effort to Get Them Paid,” discussed legislative, policy, business, and economic changes across the globe affecting master performance and neighboring rights income streams. Thank you to moderator Chris Hull, CPA from Citrin Cooperman, and to speakers Kendall A. Minster, from Greenspoon Marder LLP, Dan Millington from PPL UK, Ltd. in London, and Wade Matzler from Sound Exchange.
We finished the conference with an in-person session at Citrin Cooperman. Our first panel on “Litigation Update on the Music Front” discussed developments in copyright and entertainment litigation. It was great to have our first in-person event in some time. The panel discussed timely cases, including Thaler v Perlmutter on protecting Artificial Intelligence works under the Copyright Act, Gray v. Hudson PKA Katy Pery, on infringement of the singer’s “Dark Horse” song, and the Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldstein case, which is currently before the United States Supreme Court regarding fair use and transformative purpose. Thank you to Paul LiCalsi, from Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLC for moderating and to speakers Ryan Abbott from Brown Neri Smith and Khan LLP, Robert W. Clarida from Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt, David Leichtman from Leichtman Law PLLC, and Hillel I. Parness from Parness Law Firm PLLC. The second panel, “The Value of a Good Song – Trends and Developments in Music Catalog Transactions,” addressed the status of catalog sales and valuations, including deal types, legal due diligence, and important deal points. Thank you to moderator Brian Richards, managing partner at Artisan Media, and to speakers Nari Matsuura, Partner from Citrin Cooperman, Lisa Alter from Alter, Kendrick & Baron LLP, Andy Moats from Pinnacle Financial Partners, and John Rudolph from 1.618 Industries.
Thank you to the Music Business Law Conference Committee Rosemarie Tully, Marc Jacobson, Jared Leibowitz, Stephen Rodner, Paul LiCalsi, Joyce Dollinger, Diane Krausz, Christopher Hull, Judah Shapiro, Imraan Faruki, Isaro Carter, and Bill Werde for the great work they did in producing this outstanding event. Thank you as well to Citrin Cooperman. We greatly appreciated the numerous ways they have helped support this event. Thank you also to sponsors Zanoise, Bill Werde/Full Rate-No Cap, and our Reception Sponsor, Vydia. Their generosity is much appreciated. We greatly look forward to next year’s MBLC.
EASL Journal
Elissa Hecker continues to an amazing job as editor of the EASL Journal. She is always on the lookout for submissions. Please feel free to reach out to Elissa with any ideas or contributions to future issues of the Journal. I am already working on my next submission.
New Chairs and EASL Liaison
Welcome to Roxy Menhaji, the new chair of the Fashion Law Committee, and to Nibras Islam, the new chair of the Publicity, Privacy and Media Committee. Welcome to Ezra Doner, the new co-chair of the Digital Entertainment, Television and Radio Committee. Glad to have them join us and I know they will do a great job.
Thank you to Sharmin Woodall, EASL’s Liaison from the NYSBA. She has done an incredible work for the Section and outstanding work for EASL’s annual meeting. So much goes on behind the scenes and Sharmin is doing a great job.
Thank you to Aniqa Chowdhury and Kajon Pompey, co-chairs of the Cowan-Bresler Scholarship Committee for all their great work. Kajon, Aniqa, and the Cowan-Bresler Committee members have done a great job getting the word out to law students about this opportunity. The winning papers appear in this issue of the EASL Journal.
Thank you to the EASL Executive Committee for their great work in their respective committees, the Annual Meeting, and overall assistance with EASL. We greatly appreciate their time and input in making EASL a great section.
Annual Meeting
EASL started 2023 with a great Annual Meeting. We welcomed new EASL Section members and enjoyed seeing many of you at the Hilton or on Zoom. I hope to see you at future events, especially as we will be offering more in-person and hybrid events this year.
Thank you to Annual Meeting Committee members Pam Lester, Jill Pilgrim, and Barry Skidelsky. They worked with wonderful panelists who spoke about interesting and timely subjects. Thank you also to our generous sponsors, Herrick Feinstein and Dorsey & Whitney, whose support of EASL is greatly appreciated.
EASL was glad to offer a hybrid option, giving members the option to attend in person or virtually. The EASL Executive Committee strongly believes that in offering options, we are acting on our commitment to diversity and inclusion, namely, making the meeting available to members located geographically all over New York State (and the world), to those who have medical issues and could not attend (including those who are avoiding public places due to COVID), to those who may have disabilities that make it easier to attend remotely, and for those who did not wish to incur travel related expenses. This hybrid approach allowed both in person and virtual attendees to interact with the panels, making the Annual Meeting even more informative and enjoyable.
The Annual Meeting opened with our Phil Cowan/Judith Bresler Memorial Scholarship (PCJBMS) winners. The PCJBMS was founded in 2005 and originally named after Phil Cowan, a former chair of the EASL Section. The scholarship offers up to two awards of $2,500 on an annual basis to law students who are interested in entertainment, art, and/or sports law. The award was renamed in 2019 to commemorate the memory of Judith Bresler, another former EASL Section chair, who had made tremendous contributions to the scholarship’s success. The competition is open to law students in all accredited law schools throughout New York State, along with Rutgers and Seton Hall, as well as a number of other law schools, at the committee’s discretion, on a rotating basis throughout the United States. Two winning papers are chosen annually. The authors of the winning papers are each awarded the scholarship and their papers are published in this edition of the Journal.
Congratulations to this year’s winners: Josephine Luck, a 2L student at Fordham Law School, who authored “Is There Room for Descendants of Enslaved Peoples in the Domestic Legal Framework for Restitution and Repatriation of Cultural and Familial Property?” and Jessica Caso, a 3L student at St. John’s School of Law, who authored “‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ – and AI Brought It Back to Life: Addressing Challenges to the Right of Publicity in the 21st Century.”
Our first Annual Meeting panel, “Approaches to Negotiation in Sports, Entertainment and Other Universes,” was chaired and moderated by Pam Lester, co-chair of EASL’s Sports Law Committee. Thank you to speakers Daniel Etna, partner and co-chair of the Sport Law Group at Herrick, Arthur McAfee III, senior vice president of football operations at the National Football League, Gary Noesner, retired FBI chief hostage negotiator, and Maggie Ntim, founder of and international sports agent at Trinity 3 Agency, for sharing their insights about successful negotiating tactics.
I organized and moderated the second panel, “Ethics in Negotiating in Sports, Entertainment and Other Universes.” Ethics are at the core of negotiations, and as attorneys, we are obligated to follow rules (The Rules of Professional Conduct) and other ethics considerations. The panel addressed these and other considerations for attorneys who work in other areas of entertainment and sports, such as managers and agents. Thank you to speakers Devika Kewalramani, partner, Moses Singer and Carla Varriale-Barker, partner, Segal McCambridge and professor of Sports Law and Ethics at Columbia University Sports Management Program, for sharing their knowledge.
Our meeting concluded with “Regulation of Social Media and Online Content,” moderated by Barry Skidelsky, former EASL chair. Recent efforts by the federal government and various state legislatures, including New York, to regulate social media and online content have faced First Amendment and other challenges. The panel addressed this, along with relevant federal court litigation en route to the United States Supreme Court, that will likely have an impact on content creation and distribution. Thank you to speakers Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel, Net Choice, Scott Wilkens, senior counsel, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and Ronnie London, general counsel, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, for sharing their knowledge on this timely topic.
The day ended with a reception at Dorsey & Whitney, where we enjoyed food catered by Bill’s Bar and Burgers. We thank Dorsey and its wonderful staff for its conference room that hosted our Annual Meeting reception, and for helping us coordinate the event. A special thank you goes to EASL member and Dorsey partner, Sarah Robertson, for her help in coordinating this event.
We look forward to seeing you at more events in the coming year.
