call for speakers

Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA) is interested in hearing from potential speakers for a panel that we are considering adding as an expansion of, or reaction to, a special address by Professor Marci A. Hamilton at our Symposium to be held on November 19, 1999. (Symposium details are provided below.) Professor Hamilton, as many of you know, is Director of the Intellectual Property Law Program at Cardozo School of Law, and is Faculty Advisor to the Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal.

Professor Hamilton's special address, and accompanying Occasional Paper, will highlight an excerpt from her upcoming book, Copyright and the Constitution. The major thesis of this book is that United States copyright law is based on mainstream capitalist precepts and favors the commodification of the creative product. At the Symposium, Professor Hamilton will explore the historical and philosophical underpinnings of the Copyright Clause, laying the groundwork for her argument that database protection, moral rights, and duration extension are constitutionally suspect, and that enforcement of the antitrust laws against the copyright industry is necessary to fulfill the Copyright Clause's purpose to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts."

WALA would like to follow this address with a panel composed of participants who could use the address as a springboard for discussing First Amendment or antitrust issues raised by the increasing concentration of media industries and the resulting concentrated ownership of cultural properties.

If appropriate and interesting speakers cannot be found on this relatively short notice, WALA will divide the time that would otherwise be allocated for this panel between the other two panels in the Symposium. In that event, and if there is otherwise sufficient interest in the subject, WALA would like to begin planning a similar panel to be held at a later date.

WALA's First Annual Arts and Entertainment Law Symposium, "New Technology and Globalization," is an full-day program that will take place on November 19, 1999 at the Moot Courtroom of Georgetown University Law Center, located at 600 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington D.C.

The program will begin with a Legislative Update by Joel Flatow, from RIAA.

The first panel, "Music in the Digital Millennium: Examining New Technologies as the Law Evolves," includes the following speakers:

Julie E. Cohen, Esq., Georgetown University Law Center; Richard Harrington, The Washington Post; Kenneth M. Kaufman, Esq., Davis Wright Tremaine; Steven Marks, Esq., RIAA; and Jay Rosenthal, Esq., Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe.

The second panel, "Balancing Cultural Protection and Free Trade," includes the following speakers:

Jim Fitzpatrick, Esq., Thomas R. Kline, Esq., Andrews & Kurth; Brett Miller, Esq., Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Michael S. Shapiro, Esq., International Intellectual Property Institute; and Jill Cooper Udall, Esq.

The cost of the program is $125 for members of WALA or of the D.C. Bar Arts, Entertainment & Sports Law Section; $155 for non-members; and $25 for students.

CLE credit is available.

Please call or e-mail me for more information.

Maureen Cohen Harrington
Director of Education
Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts
815 15th Street, NW, Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: 202-393-2826 x28
Fax: 202-393-4444
E-mail: mharrington[_at_]thewala.org Received on Thu Oct 21 1999 - 19:53:15 GMT