Date/Time
Date(s) -

11/12/2019

Location
Courtyard Marriott

PANELISTS

Michael Donaldson, Esq. — Attorney at Law | Donaldson + Callif, LLP

Michael Donaldson founded Donaldson & Callif with Lisa Callif in 2008. The firm focuses on all aspects of independent film with a special focus on fair use opinions and other clearance issues in both scripted and documentary films. In 2018 alone, the firm worked on over 350 films including 250 documentaries. Such films are festival favorites. Twenty-nine films, including (20) documentaries worked on by our firm were exhibited earlier this year at the Sundance film Festival – representing 71% percent of the documentaries shown at the festival. Sixteen (16) films worked on by our firm were exhibited at the SXSW Festival in March 2019. Thirty-nine films including thirty-one  (31) documentaries worked on by our firm were exhibited at the Tribeca Film Festival in April-May 2019. The firm has worked on a number of Oscar nominees and winners, including recent films Free Solo(2019), Minding the Gap (2019), Icarus (2018), O.J.: Made in America (2017) and 20 Feet from Stardom (2014).

In 2007, on a pro bono basis, Donaldson negotiated with insurance companies to provide errors and omissions policies to cover material used pursuant to fair use. The process – still used to this day – made insurance available by all companies offering errors and omissions insurance to filmmakers provided the insurance application is accompanied by an opinion letter from a recognized law firm indicating that the material contained in the film was used according to the statute and within the case law defining fair use.

Again on a pro bono basis, Donaldson successfully argued to the United States Copyright Office that Documentary filmmakers should be exempted from criminal portions of DMCA so that they could rip DVDs to obtain material to be used pursuant to fair use. The request for an exemption was approved in 2009. Three years later, in 2012, this exemption was expanded to include streaming services. In 2015, the scope expanded to including Blue Rays. In 2018, fictional films were also exempted so that any type of film is now covered except an unscripted fictional program.

In his portion of the panel, Donaldson will present a shorthand way for you to determine whether a use of material falls within the fair use doctrine or not.  Too often, filmmakers who are not adequately represented claim fair use when it simply doesn’t exist for the use in question.

Jacqueline C. Charlesworth, Esq. | Partner at Alter, Kendrick & Baron, LLP

Jacqueline C. Charlesworth, a partner at Alter, Kendrick & Baron, LLP, is a litigator and transactional attorney whose practice is focused on music, film and other intellectual property. Previously, Ms. Charlesworth served as General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights of the U.S. Copyright Office. She is also a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, where she teaches music law with Lisa Alter.

In addition to litigating precedent-setting copyright cases, Ms. Charlesworth is a sophisticated dealmaker and advisor on legislative issues in the areas of music and copyright. In 2018, she was named Billboard Woman Executive of the Year for her critical role in crafting and securing passage of the Music Modernization Act, landmark legislation to update U.S. music licensing rules.

At the Copyright Office, Ms. Charlesworth had primary responsibility for interpretation of the U.S. Copyright Act. As General Counsel, she oversaw a wide range of litigation, legislative, regulatory, and policy matters, including the Office’s participation in Supreme Court cases, rulemaking proceedings, and copyright registration and termination issues. She also advised Congress on copyright-related legislation and policy concerns. During her tenure, she produced an influential study on the U.S. music licensing system, Copyright and the Music Marketplace, which helped set the stage for legislative reform.

Before joining the Copyright Office, Ms. Charlesworth was in private practice, where she handled IP-related litigation and transactional matters. She also served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the National Music Publishers’ Association and Senior Vice President and General Counsel of The Harry Fox Agency.

Ms. Charlesworth received a B.A. from Brown University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was an Executive Committee Editor of The Yale Law Journal and a founding member of the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism. Following law school, she clerked for Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Evan M. Greenspan | President and CEO | EMG Music Clearance

Evan Greenspan is founder and CEO of EMG, which handles music rights clearances for broadcast, film and visual media.  EMG has handled over 200,000 music clearances for a diverse, global clientele that includes the Oscars, Emmys and Grammys, “Ellen” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the American Film Institute, HBO, ABC, CBS/Viacom, NBC/Universal, FOX, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, Facebook, Hulu, iHeartMedia, Spotify, Discovery Networks, as well as live theater and industrial productions.

Prior to founding EMG Evan M. Greenspan developed music departments at both Alan Landsburg Productions and Bob Banner Associates.  An ASCAP composer and publisher, Greenspan studied musicology and composition at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MFA in Theater from UCLA.  He is a voting member of the Academy of Television and Arts and Sciences, Past President of the California Copyright Conference, a guest lecturer for UCLA Extension, Berklee College of Music, Brigham Young University and the State Bar of California Intellectual Property Law Section.

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