Seminar in Entertainment Law

Fall, 2009

Professor Perritt

Room 305

Tuesday

4 PM - 5:50 PM

Students and final papers

Adam Burnett: The Implications of Record Label Bankruptcy on Musicians

Jason Butterfield: What Rights Do Participants in the Creation of Fiction Have, and When Do They Attach?

Will Clark: Copyright, Ownership, and Control of User-Generated Content on Social Media Websites

Melanie Davis: It’s About Time: Granting a Public Performance Right in Sound
Recordings Through the Passage of the Performance Rights Act

Susan Estes: Fanfiction Dilemma: Is it Copyright Infringement or Fair Use?

David Freedman: Protecting Your Intellectual Property in the Blogosphere

Julia Jaworski: Utility of Trademark Protection for Indie Bands

Jessica Joshua: Fictional Characters and the Right of publicity: Policies, History, and Conflict

Sean Jungels: Piracy and the Movie Industry: Change Your Business Model Now or End Up Like the Music Industry

Jason D. Keck: Chicago Event Promoter’s Ordinance: Unconstitutionality and Economic Ignorance

Michael J. McSherry: The Right of Publicity and Fantasy Sports: Should Professional Athletes Wield Control Over Their Identities or Yield to the First Amendment?

Joy Mkrdichian: Copyright and Choreography: What Constitutes Fixation?

Brady O'Halloran: Constructing An Identity: An Agent’s Duties in an Artist’s Public Image Management Strategy

Philip Prorok: A Merger of Equals? An Analysis of the Ticketmaster – Live Nation Merger

Carl Philipp Schöpe: Legal Protection of Recording Artists Against Unfair Contracting

Corbin Smith: Misappropriation tort protection for paparazzi and copyright preemption

Karina Yuen Wong: Patent Protection for Performance Techniques

Schedule

25 August

• read "rules" for papers and criteria for evaluation at the top of the home page: http://www.kentlaw.edu/perritt/courses/seminar/ (before class)
• fill out and discuss survey instrument on consumption of music (in class) Questionnaire. It will save time if you look at this before class, and even more if you print it, fill it out and bring it to class. Unfortunately I ran out of time before I could do the php and MySQL coding so you could fill it out on line.
• introduce selves
• begin selection of paper topics

Questionnaire result highlights (.html) (.ppt) (.xls)

1 September - discuss draft of "Music Business Models" article

.pdf file; please do not duplicate, circulate, or site; this is a draft for discussion

Evidence/assertion correspondence:

• It's modelling, not music (not supported)
• Value of vicarious contact (partially supported)

8 September - complete selection of paper topics; initial student presentations:

Freedman (Power Point),

Jungels: (help him write the story of the making of a movie) (maybe discuss outline)

1. what's the movie about?
2. is it being made by a big studio or an indie filmmaker?
3. who is the protagonist? a seasoned veteran? a wet-behind-the-ears pup?
4. what's the budget? is a blockbuster or a run-of-the-mill movie?
5. what revenue streams are planned? (first-run theaters, US and foreign; TV rights; DVD sales; download sales; merch; sequels) and what dollar amounts for each?
6. how does piracy threaten each of these streams? what percent of demand will be diverted to illicit sources?
7. what anti-piracy strategies should be followed (sue your customers; load it down with DRM; give away free samples--perhaps pretending that they are illicit)

15 September - student presentations: Joshua, Clark, Wong

22 September - student presentations: Tennison, Prorok, Burnett

29 September - student presentations: O'Holloran, McSherry, Keck, Smith

6 October - student presentations: Schoepe, Mkrdichian, Davis

13 October - student presentations: Estes, Butterfield, Jaworski

20 October - review of status of all papers

27 October - no class (Professor Perritt in Iraq)

3 November - student presentations: McSherry, O'Holloran, Schoepe, Burnett, Butterfield

10 November - student presentations: Wong, Mkdirchian, Joshua, Davis, Clark, Freedman, Estes

17 November - student presentations: Tennison, Prorak, Jaworski, Jungels, Keck, Smith (first out)

24 November (last class) - off-site discussion of future of entertainment industries

Possible topics (topics are not limited to these)

1. Legal relations among members of a rock band: who owns the IP in songs and recordings?
2. Legal relations among filmmakers: who owns what?
3. Constitutionality of proposed Chicago Event Promoter Ordinance
4. When is file sharing among friends and relatives fair use?
5. Legal duties and powers of agents and managers
6. Will video entertainment (movies, TV and video games) follow in the footsteps of recorded music?
7. Evaluate business models for micro-advertising
8. Evaluation of legal arguments in Viacom v. YouTube
9. Evaluate business models for indie moviemaking
10. Analyze copyright protection for stage blocking and choreography
11. Efficacy of trademark protection for indie bands and filmmakers
12. Protecting actor "ownership" of characters and roles
13. Patent protection for performance techniques
14. Impact of bankruptcy of labels and flim producers on entertainers, authors, and others
15. Law and economics of AFM, Actors Equity and other entertainment-union policies towards independents
16. Constitutionality of "anti-bootleg act"
17. Nominative use of trademarks for cover bands
18. Privacy claims against imitators and cover bands
19. Economic and legal evaluation of new forms of intermediation for music and video
20. Legal and business frameworks for micro advertising
21. Ownership of YouTube, Facebook, MySpace content
22. Evaluation of alternative business-entity forms for theatrical productions, indie movies, and indie bands
23. Legality (under the labor- and antitrust laws) and economic efficacy of collective bargaining by indie musicians with record labels, promoters, and venues