The Music Law Summit West

I have grown weary of announcing every one of these seminars, gatherings, confabs, conventions, and coffee klatches dealing with the various aspects of the digital future: there are just too many of them and they go over and over the same ground.

But this one is different: some of the heaviest hitters are involved and the prospects are that something of real substance could come of it:

On February 25th in San Francisco, the Future of Music Coalition in conjunction with the Noise Pop Festival, the UC Hastings School of Law’s Intellectual Property Organization, the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal, and the Hastings Association of Communications, Sports, and Entertainment Law will
present The Music Law Summit West. It’ll be a great place to see old friends and meet new ones, and to try to come to an understanding of some of the challenges which face us all here today in the ever evolving music space. Hope to see a bunch of y’all there, but please sign up soon, as attendance is free, and it’s filling on up.

Some of the scheduled highlights include keynote addresses by California State Senator Kevin Murray and Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig, a cocktail party the night of, and four excellent looking panels. Looking forward to folks coming to my town. Dave Kostiner and Kristin Thomson have been doing an awesome job putting this together, and I know Dave is working on getting CLE accreditation for a few of the panels.

These panels include, but are not limited to:

Panel 1: Peer to Peer File Sharing: Can it be Stopped? Should it?

Chris Anderson Editor in Chief, Wired Magazine (moderator)
Margreth Barrett Professor of Law, UC Hastings College of Law
Sandy Pearlman Vice President, Media Development, Multicast Technologies,
Producer and Big Thinker
Fred Von Lohmann Senior Intellectual Property Attorney, Electronic
Frontier Foundation
more to be announced…

Panel 2: Legal Music Download Outlets: Are we on the verge of a Celestial Jukebox?

Brian Zisk Technologies Director, Future of Music Coalition (moderator)
Molly Neuman Label VP/Co-owner/Artist Manager/Musician, Lookout!
Records/Indivision Management/Bratmobile
Tim Quirk Executive Editor, Music, Real Networks
more to be announced…

Panel 3: Music and Politics: can activist musicians have an impact on the political discourse?

Jenny Toomey Executive Director, Future of Music Coalition (moderator)
Joshua Koenig Music for America
David Meinert Chair of the Advocacy Committee for the Pacific Northwest Branch of the Recording Academy, Owner/President of Fuzed Music
Fat Mike Fat Wreckords/NOFX/Punkvoter
more to be announced…

Panel 4: Musician Contracts: Are they changing as music goes digital?

Michael Aczon Attorney, Author, Professor (moderator)
Anthony Berman Attorney, Idell, Berman & Seitel
Stacy Fass Attorney, Davis Shapiro Lewit Montone and Hayes
Jordan Kurland Band Manager, Label Owner, Noise Pop Founder
Andrew Ross Director of Business Affairs, Sony
Shoshana Samole Zisk Attorney and Business Affairs, George Clinton Enterprises

Hastings College of Law is located in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center at 198 McAllister Street in San Francisco, Ca. The Summit will be in the Louis B. Meyer Lounge (LBML) in the 198 Building, 1st Floor. Enter through the side entrance on Hyde Street. Wheelchair accessible. Directions and maps

And the price is right: FREE. If you are in the area this could be very interesting and edifying.