KNOXVILLE—Thanks to modern technology, consumers can get their entertainment products—everything from movies to books to music—more quickly and easily than ever before.
While consumer-friendly technologies have given artists a greater venue for their work, they’ve also made it more difficult for artists to safeguard their work and be fairly compensated for it. Likewise, consumers also can find it confusing to navigate the legal waters when accessing entertainment.
These issues are among those that will be addressed at “Metamorphosis: How Technology is Reshaping Entertainment,” an entertainment law conference to be held on Saturday, March 31, at the College of Law at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The conference—geared not only to law, but also to business, technology, creative and communication professionals and students — is being sponsored by UT Law’s Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law and the Entertainment Law Society.
The conference will include discussions about branding, social media, the changing relationship between the gaming and film industry, crowdsourcing, intellectual property rights, copyrights, and recent legislation including the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act.
Speakers include several well-known practitioners who have spent much of their careers on the front lines in this ever-changing industry.
Joel Katz, founding shareholder of Greenberg Traurig LLP, will give the keynote address, “Branding—the Building of a Real Business in the New Technological and Entertainment World.” Katz is one of the country’s leading entertainment lawyers and has experience with artists from Jimmy Buffet to Justin Timberlake and brand entities such as Coca-Cola and Subway.
Katz’s discussion of branding in the entertainment industry will provide analysis of how these important transactions have shaped the careers of his clients and how the rapidly evolving business models of the entertainment industry will influence the lawyer’s role and strategies in facilitating brand management for clients.
Other prestigious panelists and speakers at the conference include Chief Judge Alex Kozinski from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; Jay Kogan, vice president and deputy general counsel for DC Entertainment (DC Comics and MAD Magazine); and Eric Baum, senior vice president of business and legal affairs for worldwide marketing at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The event will last from 8:30 a.m. to 4:10 p.m., and it will be held in Room 132 of the College of Law, 1505 W. Cumberland Avenue.
For attorneys, the conference will provide five hours of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit for $195. For those not seeking CLE credit, the fee is $20, which includes continental breakfast, buffet lunch, and materials.
Anyone wishing to attend must register online.
For the full list of speakers and panelists, visit the College of Law website.
—
C O N T A C T :
Micki Fox (865-974-4464, mfox2@utk.edu)
Tanya Brown (865-974-6788, tgbrown@utk.edu)