Copyright Academy: Why You Should Watch

At the Copyright Alliance, our creator members lie at the heart of everything we do. Whether it is advocating for strong copyright policies or providing educational resources, creators are the reason we come to work each day. That is also why our individual creator membership is free to join and comes with a variety of benefits. In February of this year, we launched a new benefit called Copyright Academy.

Copyright Academy is our new educational copyright webinar series available only to Copyright Alliance creator members. The webinars are available on-demand and released on a monthly basis. Each webinar in the series features a video conversation between the Copyright Alliance and an industry representative, copyright expert, or creator who will discuss a specific copyright issue. We hope that these webinars will be an easy way for you to learn more about copyright and how it applies to you and your creations. You can access the webinars by logging in to your account and clicking on the “Watch Webinars” button located on the creator membership page. Not a creator member yet? You can join for free and access all the benefits today!

Here are some descriptions of the educational copyright webinars that are available today as well as some topics that will be released later in the year.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective: This webinar covers the ins and outs of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). Featured are our CEO Keith Kupferschmid talking with Bart Herbison, Executive Director of the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the world’s largest not-for-profit songwriters trade organization dedicated to the songwriting profession. Bart also serves on the Board of the MLC, whose mission is to ensure songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers receive their mechanical royalties from U.S. streaming and download services in an accurate and timely manner. Learn why the MLC was created, the types of licenses the MLC handles, how to sign-up, and how royalties are being distributed.

Published v. Unpublished: Join our VP of Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel Terrica Carrington as she speaks with attorney Nancy Wolff of Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams, and Sheppard LLP. Nancy also represents trade associations in advocating for copyright law. Their discussion aims to clear up confusion around the difference between published and unpublished works. Learn what “published” means under copyright law, how it is different from how the word “published” is used in the everyday sense, and why the distinction exists. The webinar also covers how this can affect your application for copyright registration.

Digital Sampling: In our webinar on digital sampling, our VP of Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel Kevin Madigan joins Loren Mulraine, attorney and Professor at Belmont University. Professor Mulraine is also an experienced songwriter and independent gospel artist. Here you will learn about the different copyrights involved in securing the right to use a sample of music, what a de minimis use is, how different courts have approached infringement claims based on sampling, and more!

Open Access and Creative Commons: Here, our CEO Keith Kupferschmid talks with Roy Kaufman, the Managing Director, Business Development and Government Relations at Copyright Clearance Center. Roy, who is an author himself, dives into the topic of Open Access and the Creative Commons. Learn what open access means, what it has to do with copyright, what a creative commons license is, and how it relates to open access.

Fair Use Part 1, What is Fair Use?: Our newest Copyright Academy release (June 2021) is part one of a two-part series on the topic of Fair Use. Learn what the Fair Use doctrine is, background on where the doctrine came from, how to determine if your use is a fair use based on the four factors, and more. Our speakers are our CEO Keith Kupferschmid and Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild. In July, you can catch part two of our series on Fair Use as Keith and Mary review several important Fair Use Court cases and how the outcomes impact the Fair Use doctrine.

We are already halfway through 2021 and we still have so many new Copyright Academy webinars to share. Make sure to log in to your account if you are already a member or join our free creator membership so you don’t miss out on the following upcoming webinars:

• Copyright Alliance VP of Policy and Copyright Counsel Kevin Madigan talks with Sandra Aistars, Clinical Professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and lead of the law school’s Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Program, about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Use and Misuse of Copyrighted Works Online.
• Terrica Carrington and Eric Schwartz, Partner, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, LLP, discuss Copyright Termination.
• Kevin Madigan and Pippa Loengard, Deputy Director of the Kernochan Center for Law, Media & the Arts and Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School, speak about Differences Between Copyright, Trademark, and Patents.
• Kevin Madigan and Eleanor Lackman, Partner at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, talk about Works Made for Hire.
• Keith Kupferschmid and Tom Maddrey, American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) General Counsel, discuss the Use of Photos on Social Media.
• Keith and Tom Maddrey return in another webinar to speak about Copyright Registration for Photos.