Business and Legal Issues for Composers and Songwriters

This program presents a practical guide to many of the legal and business issues which confront film and TV composers and lyricists every day, from moral rights and copyright concerns, to collection on performance and broadcast mechanical royalties, and examining some of the basic, long-standing, judicial decisions which govern such diverse issues as parody (Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. v. Campbell), joint works (Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. v. Jerry Vogel Music Co.), the ASCAP consent decree (Alden-Rochelle, Inc. v. ASCAP), and copyright infringement (Bright Tunes Music Corp. v. Harrisongs Music, Ltd.).

Moderator & Presentator: — Jeffrey L. Graubart, Esq. is an entertainment lawyer, a former staff attorney at Capitol Records, Inc., a former Governor of the Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco chapters of the Recording Academy, and a former Vice President and Trustee of the film music preservation group Film Music Society.

Other Presentators/Panelists include:

• Ray Colcord (a successful composer for film and television, a current governor of the Television Academy, and a Past President of the SCL).
• Ashley Irwin (Emmy-winning composer from Australia, arranger, musical director and record producer based in Los Angeles and is currently president of 3 music publishing entities on 2 continents).
• David Schwartz (Emmy & Grammy nominated composer has composed the music for many top television series including Northern Exposure, Deadwood, Arrested Development, The Ellen Show plus numerous film and telefilm credits, and is a SCL Board Member).
• Garry Schyman (composer for film and television and games whose credits include eleven feature films, ten movies of the week, numerous episodes of television series, documentaries and games, is the past vice president of the SCL, is an expert in foreign royalties and is co-founder and president of the Music Copyright Society International – a music royalty collection society specializing in non-performing rights royalties for composers and publishers overseas. Garry has written numerous articles on and about performing rights and royalty issues).

Recorded June 23rd, 2004, at the American Film Institute (AFI).