School's Out For Summer !!

This is not legal advice*. Leave audio feedback at (512) 686-6329.
*and not even particularly legal-related today, but keeping the boiler-plate

I've been in Baltimore for a week now (down the road from Nick in DC), which marks the true beginning of summer for me. That means the start of week-day posts on the various sites. Those sites are:


http://law.musicmanumit.com
http://opensourceplayground.org
http://sportazine.com


CHAOTIC BEGINNING
I said "week-day" above, but I am going to be moving my days around a bit based on Wendy's days off. It just so happened that she has a week off right as I get to Baltimore. Also, Wendy is a physician working at a hospital and apparently people get sick on weekends too. Who knew?  She also does not know her July schedule. If we knew her July schedule I could pick apart July and just move this next week to then, but I can't. The upshot of all of this is that things are going to be a bit chaotic next week. Don't expect a lot of posts this coming week.

If people revolt and say they want content Mon-Fri, I can make that happen, but I doubt people care that much.


OTHER SHOWS
For a while, Stephen of cyberunions.org and and I have been discussing doing another show. I wanted to do a sports show, but Stephen hasn't been watching much sports since heading down to Mexico. It looks like this show is going to have a point-counterpoint nature to it. I'll give an update once we get a show title and web-site.

There has been one change for sportazine.com, Eric Crews has joined. We have yet to figure out how often he'll post, but he'll be covering Philley stuffs, which you can see from his Twitter feed. I might be adding others to the sportazine.com line-up. We are looking to have bloggers from all over the country and world, so if you want to join, let me know!

If you heard me talk about a possible human rights show, that is on hold unless Nick decides he wants to do one. Nick recently changed jobs and his legal focus is now different so that might me another show, if he has time.

Basically, not much has changed since the shows I mentioned before (unless Eric decides to be a mad man posting every day!). I am still looking for contributors, so if you want to contribute, let me know! Remember, I am looking for contributors on all three sites!


EURO 2012 (and other sporting events)
There are two basic themes to this post: scheduling and sports. In this section, they go hand-in-hand.

The European football championships will be going on from June 8th to July 1st. I will be covering the event for sportazine.com. That means that the posting-schedule could be slightly chaotic during that time.

If you are interested in piecing together my scheduling problem, here is an interesting but slightly bizarre version of the Euro 2012 calendar. Additionally, I will be cheering for, in the following order:

Sverige

Ireland

England

...which means I will be paying particular attention to those games.

I will try to incorporate the Euros into legal work by doing pieces on image rights, sports violence, contract law, trademarks or anything else that might come up during the broadcast of the event. If that doesn't excite you, there's also a bracket challenge and fantasy football.


I briefly discuss what's coming up on sportazine.com at the end of a recent post.


RECAP
Basically, unless I am successful in getting more help on sportazine, or at opensourceplayground.org or musicmanumit.com, postings could be a little thinner this summer than I had anticipated. My hope is things will settle down once Wendy goes back to work. As I mentioned in posts last week, let us know whether you like the daily short posts or longer, more in-depth posts.

Thanks for your support of the Music Manumit Lawcast this summer!

Overview of State IP Law with Resources

This is not legal advice. Leave audio feedback at (512) 686-6329.

One of the things I did not mention in the short overview of VARA yesterday, was VARA-like laws in states. Many of the resources you'll find below deal with the broader issue of how state law generally falls within the US system, but there is no time for that today*. It is worth noting that California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and New Mexico have all passed some sort of statutory moral rights. In other states, any sort of moral rights issues are covered by the common law.

Today's post is short too, because I started watching MIT's 4-part series on copyright in preparation for our show on Saturday.  Essentially, only the first installment where the course discuss state protection. It is very good. Check it out, especially if you are an auditory learner. The professor does use the board some, so there are some visual aspects, but it is a classroom, not generally visually stimulating environment.

Right of Publicity

All of the various Creative Commons licenses discuss the right of publicity. The most common license for music, CC BY-NC-SA, says in relevant part, on the "human readable" version:

Publicity rights allow individuals to control how their voice, image or likeness is used for commercial purposes in public. If a CC-licensed work includes the voice or image of anyone other than the licensor, a user of the work may need to get permission from those individuals before using the work for commercial purposes.

This may be the topic of a full post later in the summer (or a full podcast at some point), but I want to mention it now because for musicians it is probably the most important state IP law.

Trade Secrets

Were this a post I was doing for opensourceplayground.org, I would be focusing on this aspect of state law. This probably plays no roll for musicians, though if there were unpublished works which were stolen, it might apply. Unpublished works are protected by copyright, so that's the usual path people go. Perhaps an artist has made a pledge to never sue someone for copyright infringement, but the musician is upset that material got leaked before it was mastered. Trade secrets might apply. That's all I really want to say. More resources below. My guess is this is something that has been litigated and I just don't know about it. Remember, this is not legal advice.



*There are entire organizations dedicated to the topic of state independence, such as the Federalist Society and the 10th Amendment Center (both of which have audiocasts). I do not mean to endorse either organization, and in fact, I do often disagree with both of them, but the audiocasts the organizations provide are valuable. You need to understand (whichever side of the argument you are on) that these organizations have agendas to push.

Resources

Creative Commons and the right of publicity (among other things)

Here's a fun one: A Short Tour of Robot Case Law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_preemption
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secrets

Intellectual Property: Private Rights, The Public Interest, and the Regulation of Creative Activity. Second Edition. Chapter Six: State Laws Governing Intellectual Property. Ghosh, Gruner, Kesan, Reis. (2011)

Intellectual Property & the Patchwork Right of Publicity Laws (NOTE: I could not find audio or transcripts for this. If you know where either of those can be found, please post in the comments!)

 

LAW REVIEW

Mark A. Lemley. What the Right of Publicity Can Learn From Trademark Law, 58 Stanford Law Review 1161 (2006).

SELECT CASES

CARSON V. HERE'S JOHNNY PORTABLE TOILETS, INC.

White v. Samsung Elec. Am., Inc., 971 F.2d 1395 (9th Cir. 1992).

Other Podcasts

Suffolk Law - Kim Kardashian and the Right of Publicity
Suffolk Law - Lindsay Lohan v. ETrade Dispute

Short Overview of VARA with Additional Resources

This is not legal advice. Leave audio feedback at (512) 686-6329.

On this upcoming Saturday, Nick and I are set to record an audiocast entitled "Overview of Copyright." Because Copyright is such a behemoth, both nationally and internationally, I thought I would do some quick write-ups on related topics. The first one is on the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) or 17 USC § 106A.

Like all sections of statutes, they cannot be taken in isolation. The definition for a "work of visual art" comes from 17 USC § 101.

VARA is an attempt at moral rights*, but it is not the only place where "moral rights" come up in the US. State law rights of publicity have pieces of the European conception of moral rights (not that Europe has a unified voice on the definition of moral rights).

This little write-up is so small in part because I think the Wikipedia article does a great job of summary. I wanted to spend my time looking for additional resources. I was surprised to find so few podcasts out there on this topic and more specifically on moral rights. The Legal Talk Network has zero podcasts on moral rights, but I did post one post on VARA for you you below! Feel free to add more resources via comment!

*moral rights are a subject for another day, but if you want to learn about them now, and are willing to listen to a podcast not targeted at the legal community, check out the Music Manumit Podcast's interview with Argentine lawyer Manual Godoy-Luque.

Resources From CC:

Moral Rights in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico V3.0 Creative Commons License
CC Newsletter - Issue No. 4 
CC, Open Access, and Moral Rights

Other Podcasts

Suffolk Law School - The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990

Other Resources:

Unfinished Works
Patry on Copyright (subscription only)
Intellectual Property: Private Rights, The Public Interest, and the Regulation of Creative Activity. Second Edition. Pages 192, 712, 714, 716, 1037.
I don't know if there are transcripts from this, but if someone is doing research on VARA, they had a great speaker on the topic at Santa Clara.

2. Live Free (of Pollution) or Die!

This is not legal advice. Leave audio feedback at (512) 686-6329.

Happy Earth Day everyone! Below are notes about the items we discuss in the show, reasonably aligning with chronological order or discussion.

mp3 audio (for freedom haters*) | ogg audio (for freedom lovers)
*if you're learning, no worries! The mp3 issue is complicated, but here's something to get you started.

Target Audience:
This is an odd show as Nick and Doug do not discuss entertainment law, "intellectual property" or some aspect of law that might affect simply musicians on tour. Instead, we discuss what is known as "real property" law and do some public soul-searching about what is really important in this world.

If that sounds like it would interest you or if you simply love the earth and want to hear what we have to say about it, well, you are our target audience.

1. Pete Prodoehl on Defending your rights to music without a law degree

When Pete Prodoehl's work was used without attribution, he fought to enforce his license and won. He didn't need any stinkin' attorney to do it either (nor even one with an agreeable aroma). Find out how Pete did it, and learn some tips that might help you enforce your license.

This is not legal advice.

Targeted show audience.
Lawyers: How to talk to non-lawyers.
Artists: How to enforce your rights without a lawyer; some resources to find free / cheap legal representation.

We talk with Pete Prodoehl, who's been involved in many disciplines of the creative arts, from music to photography, as well as videography, writing, drawing, and general computer hackery. Pete has been involved in open source software, and many other open initiatives such as BarCamp, Bucketworks, Web414, and MilwaukeeDevHouse. Check out Pete's music here. And his photography here.

Show Tom and Doug did with Pete back in 2010

Pete has been using CC for ~7 years. He mostly uses BY-NC-SA, but he has experimented with other licenses.

An update or "I Know What You Did Last Winter"

Class starts on Tuesday, so I thought it a good time to reflect on where Music Manumit Lawcast is and where it is headed. Part of the goal for winter break was to figure out what exactly MML would be and when. I would not say there is a definitive answer to that, but we are certainly further than we were.

I don't think there's anything here that could be construed as legal advice, but if you think you're getting legal advice, you're wrong.

DC/Baltimore going-ons

Nick is moving to DC, which may make for better communication this summer, or at least more in-person communication, since I'll be in Baltimore. Since the last post, I have discovered Red Emma's, so if anyone is a regular, please say hello. I'll probably be at the apartment a lot this summer, but I will try to make it over to Red Emma's as much as possible as well.

The Semester

As of the moment, we will be doing a monthly audio show. I don't want to overburden myself. My grades were ok this past semester, but not what they should be. I was sick for two weeks and that had a lot to do with it. Adjusting to a new town and being away had a lot to do with it too, but the point is that I'm going to have to step it up this next semester. I need to get ahead so that if I should get sick again it won't set me back. Nick wants to amp it up and if I get sufficiently comfortable with the new material we certainly will. Nick can certainly

For anyone curious, my courses this semester are:

• Property
• Fundamentals of Intellectual Property (which is a term I don't particularly like, but there's no going back)
• Sales
• Legal Writing
• Constitutional Law

I might as well take the time to tell you the courses I took last semester so you can place my comments on various topics appropriately:

• Civil Procedure (which I'd suggest deals with some constitutional issues)
• Torts (a grab bag of various topics not limited to malpractice, nuisance, and, above all, negligence)
• Contracts (similar to Sales, but Sales is the UCC side)
• Legal Writing
• Legal Research

Earth Day 2012

Nick studied some environmental law and has a background in the related area of zoning law, but really I just think Earth Day is something to celebrate and Nick agreed we should do something, so we're doing something. I was hoping to have an online concert with artists like David Rovics and Emcee Lynx involved, but given my schedule for the semester, I doubt something that ambitious will be happening unless someone wants to help bit up the slack.

The Summer

1) The Basics

A weekly podcast and daily posts (during the week).

2) SportAZine

Right now it looks like we are going to be adding a 12-episode mini-series to the list of shows over at Sportazine.com. Stephen of Cyberunions may be hosting the show with Doug. The show will be on sports and social movements as well as fan-owned and athlete-owned sports teams and clubs. This is not set in stone. Alternatively, the show may be about technology in sports or just sports in general. Stephen is currently in Mexico (though he is from Boston) and his Internet access for the summer is still up in the air.

3) A call to action

What does my story about SportAZine have to do with the Lawcast? This is home base for the summer and I wanted to let you all know what was coming up. Also, I wanted to put out the call to get involved. The mention of Stephen and I's potential show is mostly to show you that if you have an idea, we might be a voice for it. This summer is the rare opportunity to A) have a built-in period to podcast without thinking "gawd, I don't want to do this the rest of my life" and even though any summer could be that opportunity for students, B) you'll have a full-time support staff -- me! The more time I can work on raising money to file as a 501(c)(3) and the less on producing content, the better for everyone in the long run!

So, as long as your ideas relate to sports, free software or music law, feel free to toss them out!

4) Another idea to get you thinking.

I'm going to be a busy man with all the projects, so I haven't sought out anyone to help with my idea for the Movie Manumit Podcast. I'd love to have a reason to discuss all the Creative Commons video content up on blip.tv, Vimeo, YouTube, Archive.org and Public Domain Review. Please note that while blip.tv, Vimeo and YouTube all allow at least some CC licenses, I could find no way to search for said content. So lame! I hope those sites get around to fixing that problem!

So What Exactly Did I Do in the Winter Break?

I spent a lot of time going through the catalogs of StoneAge Records and Quote Unquote Records. Expect to hear more about both labels on the Music Manumit Podcast. I got many of the music only shows ready to go for the semester, though I'm not completely done for the semester!

Nick and I recorded a show and his audio failed. I will probably put my side up on Archive.org for remixers. Tom and I also recorded a few shows and I released a couple new Punkcasts.

I discussed the show and various issues with Craig from Open Metalcast as well as the others I mentioned in the first post and earlier in this post. I visited the University of Maryland Law School briefly. I read some Property, some IP and some Con Law. I started listening to some new podcasts to get me ready for the semester. Among those podcasts are:

Constitutional Law

• 60-Second Civics
• History of the Constitutional Convention
• 10th Amendment Center Podcast
• Librivox: United States Historical Documents

IP

• USPTO Intellectual Property Education

As I mentioned before, I was already listening to Life of a Law Student. I listen to some others. Perhaps Nick and I will do a review of the podcasts at a later date.

I do not necessarily agree with everything said on those podcasts (or the NOFX video I linked to above), but I think they will help my understanding of my courses this semester.

Here's a feel good song about going back to school:

"Work, Consume, Die" by SOB Pariassound (post-punk) - CC BY-SA - Website

Don't forget you can leave audio feedback at (512) 686-6329.

Welcome to Music Manumit Lawcast

I would like to spend this first post telling you what Music Manumit Lawcast (MML) is and what it will be. However, now working on the fifth draft of this post, I am not sure I can do that with any more clarity that is on the "About" page. Briefly, it is worth mentioning that while this webpage and the name Music Manumit Lawcast are the center of the project, Nick and I will also be posting throughout the summer of 2012 on SportAZine.com and Open Source Playground dot Org.

Even those two side-projects aside, there is a wide range of what MML can be. In this post I will give you the (1) lower bound, (2) my projection, (3) a realistic stretch goal and (4) the true goal, which will need some energon and a lot of luck.

The Lower Bound
At the very least, this is my summer job for 2012. First year law students often do not get paid positions. I do not expect to bring in a lot with this project, but at least the work will be mine, rather than the IP of a judge or law firm. It is true that this might limit the connections I could have in comparison to a clerkship with a judge, but ultimately I want to learn what I want to learn. I do not want to leave up to chance whether cases that interest me go before a judge. I've taken jobs just because they were jobs before. It's not a good idea. My aspirations in the law are likely to be material for a later post, but for now it is more important that you understand the lower bound, rather than why the outcome is the lower bound.


Projection
Given my track record with Music Manumit Podcast and Nick's enthusiasm, I feel like this is likely to keep going through the school year of 2012-2013 on a weekly, rather than daily, basis. This projection has two variables that could significantly change things.

The first of those variables is Nick's time. Nick is currently in between cases. I'll let Nick say/post what his expertise is and what he is looking for, but there is the chance that he will become significantly busier.

The second of those two variables is how I continue to do in school. I believe I have things figured out after the first semester but new professors, new material and life changes can change all of those things. I started this project in place of a summer internship; it is important for me not to lose sight of that.

Additionally, I project posts will become a mix of content for musicians, music lovers, lawyers, law students and prospective employers. That is both a projection of the intended audience and the actual audience. I make this distinction because of course the actual audience will be prospective employers. However, I want to make it clear up (as I think I have) that I am a student and showing prospective employers I didn't sip martinis at the beach all summer is the primary motivation for the blog currently. Once the summer is past, Nick and I will have to reevaluate.

Realistic Stretch Goal
Realistically, I think we, as a community, can do a lot. For example, on top of the weekly posts, I want to coordinate work on Wikipedia. While there are a lot of individual articles, the depth of legal information on Wikipedia is lacking. I am not entirely certain how to coordinate those sorts of projects into the structure of a blog and audiocast. Trying to build a framework for some of these stretch goals has been the true challenge in getting MML off the ground. By comparison, when I was President of the Madison Linux User Group, if we had a project to coordinate, we would go to a coffee shop and meet in physical space and do something. It was the same situation when I was planning music festivals in Chapel Hill.

While having an online community presents new challenges for me personally, looking at the Linux Outlaws community and even at the Music Manumit Podcast community, it is clearly possible to start new projects and get community involvement. For example, this very show springs out of Nick being a listener to the Music Manumit Podcast. Additionally, amsterdammack has done great things in helping Music Manumit and has been inspired to start his own music show, Music Message.

However, those two examples for Music Manumit both apply directly to Music Manumit projects. Working on the legal information on Wikipedia doesn't directly relate to Music Manumit, unless there is some way to set up a Wikipedia commit team. There may be. That will be a project for me as soon as I click "Publish Post."

The next post is not yet planned (though we have a list of about 60 topics), but one of the first posts will be a call to get involved. I'll post information about the Wikipedia articles in that post.

The Sky is the Limit
The discussion has already begun on turning this project as a whole into a 501(c)(3). It is as a 501(c)(3) that I feel there can be the most synergy with the other two projects; Open Source Playground dot Org and SportAZine.com. I have already begun thinking about other potential audiocasters to get involved and to potential members of the board. For example, I am hoping to get Cyberunions involved. I will attempt to keep as much discussion about the potential of a non-profit in the open as possible without flooding the feed. If people feel like just posting questions to a social network is best, I can do that.

The cost of filing to become a Non-Profit is $850*, so I will need to raise some cash to get this off the ground as tuition alone for me is about $40k. One of the many things I need to do is set up the site for Google Checkout, Paypal, etc donations, but for now you can donate to the cause using Flattr. If you don't feel like you have enough information to determine whether you should donate, don't worry. I'll be posting on a daily basis in summer 2012. There will be plenty of content from which to make an eventual decision.

I feel like getting this to be a full 501(c)(3) would be climbing to the top of the mountain, but to really take to the sky, the non-profit would need to be able to sustain at least one full time employee - me. Assuming I can raise the funds to file, I would like this to be my full-time job after graduation. Yes, this site is for future employers and I want to be my own future employer, but I am one-semester into law school. I have not even started course work in patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets or in technology/Internet law, so I feel required to cover more than one set of tracks. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, as they say.



Conclusion
I hope that helps tell you about what is to come. The project is a journey for Nick and me. I hope you'll join us!

It's not the summer yet, so I don't know if I'll post tomorrow, but at the latest, I'll be back next week! In the mean time, for your musical enjoyment:

"Start Again" by Alex (pop) - CC-BY - Website
Reason: Starting a blog, again. ;)







*This is not legal advice. Nothing on this page, show, blog or *cast will ever be legal advice. I am not licensed to practice law in any jurisdiction (Nick is, but I don't know which ones!).