I will be speaking at The Harvard University Law School today between noon and 1:15 PM in Wasserstein Hall 3036. The subject will be my work in, and take on, music copyright, intellectual property, tech and entertainment issues. This is a great honor and I am very happy to have been invited.
(If you haven’t been to campus, there is a magnificent statue of John Harvard. It has always looked like this, except for a few hours in 1996 when MIT students dressed him up to look like the Unabomber.)
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This blog post will also double as my notes or at least a guide to the order of subjects. I’ll be able to see this post on a monitor or my iPhone while my iPad plays the music. I’ll also bring a DVD or two, unless I choose to access the same material on the Very Wide World Spider Web.
Videos I will use:
Excerpt from film, “BASEketball” – Joe Cooper says the name, “Steve Perry, Steve Perry!” He then sings the opening line – “And I should’ve been gone” – from Steve Perry’s “Oh Sherrie.” Did this need to be licensed?
And Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” In 2004, Greg & Evan Spiridellis created a video parody of Jib Jab – Woody Guthrie. Their docile, innocent not-for-profit two-minute video went viral becoming the first Internet mega-hit and drew the wrath of a publisher. I was involved in the defense of this. I might talk about it – maybe give my take on whether this is a parody, satire, parodic satire, satiric parody, or some of more of those words, as well as other issues that arose.
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As of now, my first Harvard Law set list will cover:
Tracks 1 – 7 Infringement? Not Infringement?
Tracks 8 – 16 Parody? Not a Parody?
Tracks 17 – 27 Mashups
Tracks 28 – 36 Sampling
Tracks 37 – 48 Advertising, Right of Publicity, Copyright
Tracks 49 – 74 Evidence/Exhibits I will use
Tracks 75 – 78 Licensing issues
Tracks 79 – 80 Co-Writing/Joint Works
Tracks 81 – 96 Originality, Copyright Myths
Tracks 97 – 118 Big Publishing Mistake
This is not firm and these examples vary in length from 2 seconds to 120 seconds. I might jump around (I’ll resist the urge for a Jump Around link as it is too predictable).
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Most significantly and solemnly to me, my Dad, Edward F. Harrington, died on December 5, 1991. This day is always very important to me. I was the luckiest person to be his son.