2024 Entertainment and Media Law Conference — March 21, 2024

We’ll explore the legal issues arising out of the creative industry’s use of artificial intelligence tools in entertainment production. Are there risks in using these tools, and do those depend on whether you’re generating text, images, audio, video, or other content? Can existing copyright and right-of-publicity laws (and would-be regulators) handle the nuance? And what about the First Amendment?

Panelists

Moderator Vince Chieffo, Greenberg Traurig

Speaker Ben Sheffner, MPA

Speaker Kelli Sager, Davis Wright Tremaine

Speaker Aimée Wolfson, Executive Vice President, Intellectual Property & Deputy General Counsel, Sony Pictures Entertainment

• Copyright Office Notice of Inquiry: Artificial Intelligence and Copyright
• Public Comments in Response to Notice of Inquiry
  • Motion Picture Association
  • Motion Picture Association (Reply)
  • News Media Alliance
  • FTC
  • OpenAI
  • Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association
  • National Writers Union
  • Universal Music Group
  • Meta Platforms
  • Associated Press
  • Entertainment Software Association
  • National Association of Broadcasters
  • Association of American Publishers
  • National Association of Voice Actors
  • Recording Industry Association of America
  • National Music Publishers' Association
  • International Screenwriters Association
  • Authors Alliance and the Library Copyright Alliance
  • Getty Images (US), Inc
  • American Society of Media Photographers
  • Independent Film & Television Alliance
  • National Public Radio
  • The Authors Guild
  • SAG-AFTRA
  • Artists Rights Society
  • Shutterstock
  • Directors Guild of America
  • Graphic Artists Guild
  • Songwriters Guild of America, Society of Composers & Lyricists, and Music Creators North America
  • WGA West & East
  • William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
  • Microsoft
  • ASCAP
• Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence
• U.S. Copyright Office Decision Letter re: Zarya of the Dawn (Feb. 21, 2023)
• U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property – Part II: Copyright
  • Statement of the Motion Picture Association
  • Jennifer E. Rothman, Federal Right of Publicity Takes Center Stage in Senate Hearing on AI (July 27, 2023)
• Congressional Research Service, Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law (Sept. 29, 2023)
• CVL Economics, Future Unscripted: The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Entertainment Industry Jobs (Jan. 2004)
• Draft, NO FAKES Act of 2023
• HR. 6943 – No AI FRAUD Act
• U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet – Part II: Identity in the Age of AI
  • Statement of the Motion Picture Association
• California AB 1836
• California AB 2602
• Tennessee HB 2091 – Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security (ELVIS) Act of 2024
• Emily Alexandra Poler, What’s Real, What’s Fake: The Right of Publicity and Generative AI, ABA Business Law Today (Aug. 2023)
• Brianne Polito and Matthew Savare, The No Fakes Act and the Right of Publicity in the Age of Generative AI, Association of National Advertisers (Dec. 15, 2023)
• Young v. NeoCortext, Inc., No. 2:23-cv-2496 (C.D. Cal. Sept. 5, 2023)
• Summary of the 2023 WGA MBA
• SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Contracts 2023, Summary of Tentative Agreement
• Gene Maddaus, SAG-AFTRA Signs Deal With Voiceover Studio for AI Use in Video Games, Variety (Jan. 9, 2024)

In the Ninth Circuit, it has become increasingly difficult to get copyright infringement cases arising from film and TV productions dismissed due to lack of substantial similarity at the motion to dismiss stage.  Even summary judgments have become more difficult to obtain, and the disparate treatment that judges are according to these cases has serious First Amendment implications.  How did we get here, and what strategies are people using to deal with this issue? Is there a split between federal circuits? Are there other quick ways out of these cases?

 Panelists

Moderator David Aronoff, Fox Rothschild

Speaker David Grossman, Loeb & Loeb

Speaker Zazi Pope, Mediator/Arbitrator, Signature Resolution

Robert H. Rotstein, author and attorney, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP

• Hanagami v. Epic Games, Inc., 85 F.4^th 931 (9^th Cir. 2023)
• Washington v. ViacomCBS Inc., No. 21-55668 (9^th Cir. Mar. 28, 2023
• Ricketts v. Berlanti Prods., No. 20-55912 (9^th Cir. Apr. 7, 2022)
• Carlini v. Paramount Pictures Corp., No. 21-55213 (9^th Cir. Mar. 2, 2022)
• Gregorini v. Apple Inc., Nos. 20-55664, 20-55846 (9^th Cir. Feb. 22, 2022)
• Corbello v. Valli, 974 F.3d 965 (9^th Cir. 2020)
• Masterson v. Walt Disney Co., No. 19-55650 (9^th Cir. Aug. 3, 2020)
• Alfred v. Walt Disney Co., No. 19-55669 (9^th Cir. July 22, 2020)
• Zindel v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc., No. 18-56087 (9^th Cir. June 22, 2020)
• Daniels v. Walt Disney Co., 958 F.3d 767 (9^th Cir. 2020)
• Benay v. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., 607 F.3d 620 (9^th Cir. 2010)
• Funky Films, Inc. v. Time Warner Entertainment Co., 462 F.3d 1072 (9^th Cir. 2006)
• Kouf v. Walt Disney Pictures & Television, 16 F.3d 1042 (9^th Cir. 1994)
• Jones v. Twentieth Century Studios, Inc., No. 2:21-cv-05890 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 28, 2023)
• Shame on You Productions, Inc. v. Banks, 120 F. Supp. 3d 1123 (C.D. Cal. 2015)
• Clark D. Asay, An Empirical Study of Copyright’s Substantial Similarity Test, 13 U.C. Irvine L. Rev. 35 (2022)
• Sadaf Deedar, Ninth Circuit Says Copyright Suit Against AppleTV+ Shyamalan Series Can Proceed, IP Watchdog (Mar. 1, 2022)
• Daryl Lim, Saving Substantial Similarity, 73 Fla. L. Rev. 591 (2021)
• MLRC/Southwestern 18th Annual Entertainment and Media Law Conference: Hypothetical, Story Treatments, Bench Brief, and Case Summaries
• Matthew Samet, Ninth Circuit New Rules Of Substantial Similarity, 5 USC Entertainment Law Spotlight 29 (2021)
• Alan Friedman, Are Rule 12(b)(6) Dismissals In Copyright Infringement Lawsuits In Danger?, Entertainment Law & Finance (Oct. 2020)
• Aaron Moss, Inside Out: The Ninth Circuit’s Head-Scratching Approach to Substantial Similarity, Copyright Lately (Aug. 9, 2020
• David Aronoff, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: An Examination of “Substantial Similarity” in California Idea Submission Cases, 66 J. Copyright Soc’y 415 (2019)

Conference attendees will be able to choose between three moderated breakouts during this block focused on group participation and sharing of ideas among participants.

Music

Using a hypothetical based on recent developments, we’ll discuss how substantial similarity in music is off on its own track (so to speak), AI-generated “sound-alikes” and style copies, joint authorship and remote collaboration in the Zoom era, and other topics of interest to attendees.

Moderators

Bradley Mullins, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp

Tracy Rane, Kibler Fowler & Cave

Media Deals

We’ll find our way through the thicket of the interaction between deal-making and documentary production. What issues do you need to consider when negotiating with the subject of the documentary? Can you really not pay the subject of the doc? How do you handle editorial/creative/business approvals if the subject of the doc (or their production company) is executive producing the doc? Can you leverage the social media accounts of the subject in the production and promotion of the doc? Can production standards be both ethical and competitive in this market?  

Moderator

Alexia Bedat, Klaris Law

Dale Cohen, Special Counsel, "Frontline,” and Director of the Documentary Film Legal Clinic at UCLA School of Law

 The Public Domain

As more and more high-profile works and characters enter into the public domain each year, we’ll discuss what can and can’t be done with this intellectual property. How do you distinguish between versions of a character? What happens when a character is also a trademark? How important are public domain works for training artificial intelligence? Do works created by artificial intelligence simply enter the public domain upon creation?  

Moderators

Art Neill, Executive Director & Associate Clinical Professor, New Media Rights/California Western School of Law

Erika Lee, Assistant Director, New Media Rights/California Western School of Law

Music

• Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, 952 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2020)
• Gray v. Hudson, 28 F.4^th 87 (9th Cir. 2022)
• 17 U.S.C. s. 114

 Media Deals

• Chevron Corp. v. Berlinger, 629 F.3d 297
• Mia Galuppo & Katie Kilkenny, Inside the Documentary Cash Grab, Hollywood Reporter (Sep. 2022)
• Brian Welk, Selling ‘Nalvany’ Documentaries in a ‘Dahmer’ World: Making Sense of a Changing Market, IndieWire (April 2023)
• Lauren Pabst, The Powerful Intersection of Documentary and Journalism at the Local Level, Mac Found (July 10, 2023)
• Matthew Dixon, The Evolution of Backend Compensation in Feature Film Deals, LinkedIn (March 2023)
• Reeves Wiedeman, Reality Check: The boom – or glut – in streaming documentaries has sparked a reckoning among filmmakers and their subjects, Vulture (Feb. 2023)
• Marta Balaga, Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking: Patricia Aufderheide Urges Community to Put Values into Action, Variety (Oct. 2022)
• Margie Ratcliff, My Family’s Story is Proof That Documentaries Need Ethical Standards, Time (Nov. 2023)
• Nicole Sperling, After A Slow Start, Sundance Finished With Plenty of Sales, New York Times (Jan. 2024)
• Cath Clarke, Subject review- exploitation, trauma and the ethics of documentary-making, The Guardian, (Feb. 2023)
• Lisa Leeman, Considering Whether Documentaries Should Pay for Play
• Tom Isler, What ‘Chevron Corp. v. Donzinger’ Continues To Get Wrong about Documentary Filmmaking, University of Pennsylvania, Carey Law (March 2014)
• Isabel Farhi, A Reporter by Any Other Name: Qualifying for Reporter’s Privilege in the Digital Age, Yale Law (Feb. 2019)
• Patricia Aufderheide, Tough Topics in Investigative Journalism: Double Exposure 2023, Filmmaker Magazine (November 2023)
• Erin Brockovich, This lawyer should be world-famous for his battle with Chevron – but he’s in jail, The Guardian (Feb. 2022)
• Morgan Simon, Courts Are Not A Weapon: How Corporations Like Chevron Use The Law To Get Their Way, Forbes (May 2022)

The Public Domain

• Cara Gagliano, The Public Domain Benefits Everyone – But Sometimes Copyright Holders Won’t Let Go, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Jan. 22, 2024)
• Sarah Hook, The first Mickey Mouse is now in the public domain. How can I use the Disney character?, The Conversation (Jan. 14, 2024)
• Dominic Patten, Mickey Mouse Hits The Public Domain, But Don’t Expect To Get A Free Ride On ‘Steamboat Willie’, Deadline (Jan. 1, 2024)
• Neda Ulaby, 'Steamboat Willie' is now in the public domain. What does that mean for Mickey Mouse?, NPR (Jan. 1, 2024)
• Aaron Moss, Public Domain Day 2024 is Coming: Here’s What to Know, Copyright Lately (Dec. 4, 2023)
• James Robert Bilhartz, Translating Rights: The International Public Domain and Multiple Translation, Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts (July 5, 2023)
• Louise Thorning Ahle, Trademark registration of works of art in public domain – reasonable grounds for rejection?, World Trademark Review (Sept. 12, 2018)
• What does a trademark have to do with the public domain?, Public Domain Sherpa
• Jennifer Jenkins, Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: a 95-year Love Triangle, Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain
• Jennifer Jenkins, January 1, 2024 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1928 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1923!, Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain
• Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 539 U.S. 23 (2003)
• Fleischer Studios, Inc. v. A.V.E.L.A., Inc., 654 F.3d 958 (9^th Cir. 2011)
• Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003)
• Blake Brittain, Computer scientist makes case for AI-generated copyrights in US appeal, Reuters (Jan. 24, 2024)
• The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corporation and OpenAI, Inc., OpenAI LP, OpenAI GP LLC, OpenAI LLC, OpenAI OpCo LLC, OpenAI Global LLC, OAI Corporation, LLC, OpenAI Holdings, LLC
• OpenAI and journalism

This session will discuss news coverage of major events (including the Israel-Hamas War, the Ukraine-Russia War, and the upcoming ’24 election), focusing on issues of bias, access and coverage, silos and polarization, disinformation, defamation, and more.

Panelists

Moderator George Freeman, MLRC

Speaker Jeff Glasser, General Counsel, Los Angeles Times

Speaker Adam Nagourney, author and journalist, New York Times

Speaker Terry Tang, Interim Executive Editor, Los Angeles Times

Speaker Adam B. Vary, Senior Entertainment Writer, Variety

• High Court says Israel can keep barring foreign reporters from Gaza, Times of Israel (Jan. 10, 2024)
• Amna Nawaz, et al., The online information war over fake content linked to Israel-Hamas conflict, PBS NewsHour (Dec. 28, 2023)
• Israel-Gaza war takes record toll on journalists, Committee to Protect Journalists (Dec. 21, 2023)
• Harriet Sherwood, ‘Hugely frustrating’: international media seek to overcome Gaza ban, The Guardian (Dec. 12, 2023)
• Scott Simon, Why it's so hard for journalists to report from Gaza, NPR (Nov. 11, 2023)
• Misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war is flooding social media. Here are the facts, Associated Press (Oct. 30, 2023)
• A.W. Ohlheiser, Don’t believe everything you see and hear about Israel and Palestine, Vox (Oct. 18, 2023)
• Shannon Bond, Video game clips and old videos are flooding social media about Israel and Gaza, NPR (Oct. 10, 2023)
• Israel and Palestine: Allow international media access to Gaza, Article 19
• “Open the gates at Rafah so that journalists can leave and enter Gaza!”, Reporters Without Borders
• Ksenia Turkova, Russia’s Fake News About Ukraine, Explained, Voice of America (Jan. 15, 2024)
• Alice Speri, Ukraine Blocks Journalists From Front Lines With Escalating Censorship, The Intercept (June 22, 2023)
• Liam Scott, New Rules Limit Media’s Ability to Cover Ukraine War, Voice of America (Mar. 31, 2023)
• Juliana Narvaez, The Stories Behind the Reporting on the War in Ukraine, International Center for Journalists (Feb. 24, 2023)
• Mark Scott, ‘Grotesque’ Russian disinfo campaign mimics Western news websites to sow dissent, Politico (Sept. 27, 2022)
• David Klepper, Meta disables Russian propaganda network targeting Europe, Associated Press (Sept. 27, 2022)
• Madeline Roache, et al., Russia-Ukraine Disinformation Tracking Center: 465 Websites Spreading War Disinformation And The Top Myths They Publish
• Sakshi Venkatraman, First female L.A. Times editor in newspaper’s 142-year history talks layoffs and losing journalists of color, NBC News (Jan. 26, 2024)
• Charles Kaiser, The Times review: how the newspaper of record survived – and thrived, The Guardian (Sept. 24, 2023)
• Adam Edelman, States turn their attention to regulating AI and deepfakes as 2024 kicks off, NBC News (Jan. 25, 2024)
• Zachary B. Wolf, The deepfake era of US politics is upon us, CNN (Jan. 24, 2024)
• Zeve Sanderson, Misunderstood mechanics: How AI, TikTok, and the liar’s dividend might affect the 2024 elections, Brookings Institution (Jan. 22, 2024)
• Brandy Zadrozny, Disinformation poses an unprecedented threat in 2024 — and the U.S. is less ready than ever, NBC News (Jan. 18, 2024)
• Paige Sutherland Meghna Chakrabarti, AI's influence on election 2024, WBUR (Jan. 17, 2024)
• Ali Swenson and Christine Fernando, As social media guardrails fade and AI deepfakes go mainstream, experts warn of impact on elections, Associated Press (Dec. 26, 2023)
• Jeremy Herb, et al., Takeaways from the $83.3 million jury verdict against Donald Trump, CNN (Jan. 26, 2024
• Sam Cabral, Defamation defeat a double-edged sword for Trump, BBC (Jan. 26, 2024)
• Ted Johnson, Donald Trump’s Campaign Cuts Off Access After Refusing To Allow NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard As Designated Pool Reporter, Deadline (Jan. 21, 2024)
• Clay Calvert, Donald Trump’s repeated libel — where does the law stand?, The Hill (June 1, 2023)
• Trump Suing for Defamation, First Amendment Watch