MCN 2000 -- IP Open Forum

Intellectual Property Open Forum
Thursday, September 7, 6:00-8:00 pm
Four Season Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada
MCN 2000 Museums and Technology: The Name of the Game is Change

In conjunction with its annual conference, the Museum Computer Network (<http://www.mcn.edu/>) Intellectual Property special interest group will sponsor an Open Forum on the international IP issues that affect museums today.

Speakers will address and challenge the audience regarding the IP issues surrounding emerging models of e-commerce. Examples might be the MP3 and Napster models, the ICRAVETV issue, deep-linking cases, etc. While these aren't at the heart of what museums are doing now, these models may influence our behavior in the future. In order to develop an e-commerce model that suits museums - far beyond selling stuff out of our gift shops - and being able to provide public free access to museum content on-line, we should have a good grasp of what the business world is currently developing and modify it for the cultural heritage/not-for-profit environment. The traditional licensing relationship may not survive in the Web environment - especially if we want to provide deep public access -- so we need to propose alternative relationships while still meeting the needs of and compensating rights holders (including museums).

For more information about the conference, please see the MCN Website at:

   <http://www.mcn.edu/>

Panel participants include:

  o David Nimmer , Counsel, Irell & Manella, Los Angeles.

     Since 1985, he has updated and revised Nimmer on Copyright, the
     standard reference treatise in the field, first published in 
     1963 by his late father, Prof. Melville B. Nimmer.  Besides also 
     contributing to other treatises, Mr. Nimmer has authored numerous 
     law review articles on domestic and international copyright issues.  
     Nimmer on Copyright is routinely cited by U.S. and foreign courts 
     at all levels in copyright litigation. 

     Mr. Nimmer lectures widely in the copyright arena.  Besides
     in-house seminars (such as for the legal staffs of Turner 
     Broadcasting in Atlanta and Times Mirror in New York and Los 
     Angeles), he has lectured around the world, at MILIA in Cannes, 
     ALAI in Tel Aviv, La Sapienza in Rome, IMPRIMATUR in London, 
     the Copyright Society of Japan in Tokyo, and regularly to bar 
     organizations in California and throughout the U.S. 

     In addition to writing and lecturing, Mr. Nimmer represents
     clients in the entertainment, publishing, and high technology 
     fields.  He gave Congressional testimony on behalf of the United 
     States Telephone Association in 1997; on behalf of the National 
     Association of Broadcasters in 1992; and Parliamentary testimony 
     on behalf of the Combined Newspaper and Magazine Copyright 
     Committee of Australia in Sydney in 1993. 

     Mr. Nimmer is presently working on a book-length analysis of 
     Copyright in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qimron v. Shanks, before the 
     Israeli Supreme Court).

     Mr. Nimmer received an A.B. with distinction and honors in 
     1977 from Stanford University, and his J.D. in 1980 from Yale 
     Law School, where he served as Editor of the Yale Law Journal.

  o Richard Weisgrau, Executive Director, ASMP

     Richard Weisgrau has served as the executive director of ASMP
     -- The American Society of Media Photographers for the past 
     twelve years.  As such, he serves as the collective voice of 
     more than 5000 professional photographers who provide much of 
     this nations advertising, corporate and editorial photographs 
     for print and electronic media.  His responsibilities include 
     strategic planning and operational oversight for ASMP.  He has 
     testified before the Senate and the House and various Copyright 
     Office panels on a variety of issues related to media
     photographers' interests, but primarily on copyright issues.  
     He lectures and writes on the topics of negotiation, copyright
     in the business environment, and the impact of new technology 
     on the craft and business of media photography. 

     He is the architect of the ASMP's collective licensing program, 
     which represents more than 600 members of ASMP.  And, he 
     participated in the design and functional planning of MIRA, 
     the Copyright Clearance Center's online licensing service for 
     images.  He served on the Copyright Clearance Center's Board of 
     Directors for three years.  Currently, he is working on the 
     design and development of a system for the automated licensing 
     of the reuse of photographers' images by the original 
     commissioning parties.  Prior to his current position, he was 
     a media photographer from 1964 to 1987.  He joined the ASMP 
     in 1970, and he served on the ASMP's Board of Directors for 
     eight years. 

     Having originally studied political science with an eye on law
     school, he developed a love for photography in college, and he 
     ended up with a Masters Degree in Photography instead of a law 
     degree.  He thinks of the law as a great hobby.  Cameras are 
     still his favorite toys. 

  o Tyler Ochoa, Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California,

     Tyler T. Ochoa is an Associate Professor at Whittier Law School
     in Costa Mesa, California, where he is one of four full-time 
     professors affiliated with the Center for Intellectual Property 
     Law.  He received an A.B. degree from Stanford University in 1983
     and a J.D.  degree from Stanford Law School in 1987.  In 1987-88, 
     he was a clerk for the Hon. Cecil F. Poole of the U.S. Court of 
     Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Prior to joining the faculty at 
     Whittier, he was an associate with the law firm of Brown & Bain, 
     in Palo Alto, California, where he specialized in copyright and 
     trade secret litigation involving computer software.  His 
     article, Dr. Seuss, The Juice and Fair Use: How the Grinch 
     Silenced a Parody, 45 J. Copyr. Soc'y USA 546 (1998), received 
     the Charles Seton Award from the Journal of the Copyright 
     Society of the U.S.A.  In recent years, he has spoken on copyright
     issues for the Museum Computer Network, the American Association 
     of Museums, the College Art Association, the National Initiative 
     for a Networked Cultural Heritage, the Orange County Patent Law 
     Association, and the San Diego Intellectual Property Law 
     Association. 

  o Jonathan Band, Morrison & Foerster Attorneys at Law, Washington, D.C.

     Mr. Band's areas of practice include intellectual property,
     administrative litigation, and Internet regulation.  His 
     intellectual property work has focused on appellate litigation 
     in software copyright cases and advocacy concerning intellectual 
     property policy issues.  Mr. Band also has advised clients on 
     Internet issues including online banking, privacy, gambling, 
     and indecency.  Mr.  Band is the author of Interfaces on Trial: 
     Intellectual Property and Interoperability in the Global Software 
     Industry (Westview Press 1995) and over 40 articles on intellectual 
     property topics.  Mr. Band received his B.A., magna cum laude, Phi 
     Beta Kappa, in 1982 from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Yale Law 
     School in 1985.  He is admitted to practice in the District of 
     Columbia and California, and before the U.S. Supreme Court and 
     the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Tenth and District of 
     Columbia Circuits.

Full workshop, session, and special event descriptions are available online at <http://www.mcn.edu/>. Hotel and travel information can found there as well as links to Las Vegas highlights. Registration forms are available as pdf files; online registration will be available soon. Please join us!

Amalyah Keshet
Head of Visual Resources, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Board of Directors, the Museum Computer Network Chair, MCN Intellectual Property Special Interest Group <akeshet[_at_]netvision.net.il> Received on Mon Jul 31 2000 - 19:47:12 GMT