In August 2019, a jury awarded a little-known songwriter $2.8 million in damages for copyright infringement. The alleged infringement involves four notes from Katy Perry’s hit song “Dark Horse.” The verdict can be viewed as a victory for the little guy—a Christian rapper who, pre-internet, would have struggled to show access, a required component of illegal copying. It can alternately be viewed as a dangerous precedent, opening the door for copyright trolls and deterring creation.
In 2017, Silicon Flatirons hosted a conference focused on the recently decided Blurred Lines case, in which Marvin Gaye’s estate secured a multi-million-dollar copyright infringement judgment against songwriters and recording artists, Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke. Since that time, dozens of similar lawsuits have accused artists—ranging from Ed Sheeran to Led Zeppelin to Lady Gaga—of unauthorized copying of others’ songs. Some of these cases have settled with few publicly-available details. Others have gone to trial with juries ultimately awarding millions of dollars in damages.
Join us for our sixth annual content conference where we will welcome back some familiar faces, and new experts, to ask: Is this a good development? Are juries getting these “substantial similarity” cases right? If so, how do we know? If not, what are some alternative ways to handle these types of cases?
Sessions
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
- Kristelia García
Associate Professor, University of Colorado Law School; Content Initiative Director, Silicon Flatirons
Music Panel
- Joseph Fishman — Moderator
Associate Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School - Anna Morsett — Panelist
Songwriter and Recording Artist (The Still Tide) - Jeff Prystowsky — Panelist
Songwriter and Recording Artist (The Low Anthem) - Alex Stewart — Panelist
Professor of Jazz Studies and Ethnomusicology, University of Vermont (Musicologist for Taurus) - Sandy Wilbur — Panelist
President, Musiodata (Musicologist for Williams defendants)
Break
Policy Panel
- Pamela Samuelson — Moderator
Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California Berkeley; Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology - Kevin Erickson — Panelist
Director, Future of Music Coalition - Edward Lee — Panelist
Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law; Co-director, Chicago-Kent Program in Intellectual Property Law - Lateef Mtima — Panelist
Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law; Founder and Director, Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice - Regan A. Smith — Panelist
General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights, U.S. Copyright Office
Break
Legal Panel
- Kristelia García — Moderator
Associate Professor, University of Colorado Law School; Content Initiative Director, Silicon Flatirons - Richard S. Busch — Panelist
Partner, King & Ballow (Counsel for the Gaye estate) - Kenneth D. Freundlich — Panelist
Attorney, Freundlich Law (Counsel for Amici Musicologists: Blurred Lines, Led Zeppelin, and Katy Perry cases) - Lydia Pallas Loren — Panelist
Henry J. Casey Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School - Francis Malofiy — Panelist
Lord Commander, Francis Alexander LLC (Counsel for the estate of Randy “California” Wolfe)