IAEL Hold First Virtual Legal Summit at Midem

In a time of worldwide distancing and isolation, the IAEL (International Association of Entertainment Lawyers) has come together to mount its first-ever digital IAEL Legal Summit as part of major music conference Midem.

“The IAEL has participated at Midem in Cannes for 46 years and we were determined to continue this tradition,” explains Jeff Liebenson, IAEL President. “This year, we’re excited to welcome our colleagues from around the world who will be able to join no matter where they are, free of charge. It reflects the more global nature of our work in this day and age, and marks a new milestone in our collaboration.”  

Presented as part of Midem Digital Edition, the IAEL Legal Summit will take place online for the first time on June 3-4, 2020, both days at 10am ET/4pm CET, and on June 5, 2020 at 9am ET/3pm CET. “There are IAEL members throughout the world and many of them--from Toronto to Rio, and from LA to NY to Hong Kong—are presenters in this year’s IAEL Legal Summit,” notes Liebenson. 

The IAEL Legal Summit is comprised of the following sessions:

The IAEL Legal Update is a core IAEL presentation addressing the important legal developments in entertainment law this year from key territories around the globe. The topics will range from the reaction to COVID-19 to an update from the Board Chair of the MLC, and from Kraftwerk’s 20 year battle over a 2 second sample to the Tik Tok v Baidu case, the first copyright infringement ruling from the new Beijing Internet Court. 

The IAEL Masterclass presents a deep dive into one particular hot topic, which this year is the surge in copyright infringement claims brought against hit songs involving Marvin Gaye, Katie Perry and Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. These cases have stretched our understandings of copyright, and generated an outcry from the music industry.  “Did You Steal My Song, An International Perspective” will bring together top experts in NY, London, Milan and Los Angeles to unpack these emerging issues that affect songwriters throughout the industry.
 
This session will address such questions as:

Do we now have a new standard for infringement?
Are new rulings encouraging creativity or discouraging it?
Are we properly protecting all creators’ rights?
And how does the law vary from one part of the world to another?
 
The IAEL Main Session. Each year at Midem, the IAEL chooses what it thinks will be the most relevant topic for its next book.  Last summer, before the pandemic, it chose the topic, “Nationalism v Globalism.”

These forces have dominated worldwide developments in recent years, and the IAEL wanted to examine these forces as they affect entertainment law around the world.  

For clients, the world was becoming an increasingly smaller, more connected place.  Technology knew no borders and it spanned the globe.  Meanwhile, our legal systems had largely developed on a national basis, with key rights and rightsholders often different from market to market. “Nationalism v Globalism” examines how the entertainment lawyer manages this, and what deals can be done on a regional or global basis and which ones need to be made locally.

The book’s editors have taken this on with input from IAEL contributors around the world, and in Main Session will share highlights from several of them with presentations on Brexit and the entertainment industry, attempts at regulating fake news online, the environmental impacts of recorded music, and data protection and the global effects of the European Union’s GDPR.

Meet the Lawyers—This IAEL session will enable Midem participants to interact with and pose questions to various members of the IAEL.  

“Meeting with colleagues in person has been meaningful, but I’m confident that this year’s Summit will allow us to expand our circle of colleagues and share our experience in way that will benefit our profession immensely,” says Liebenson.
 
About the IAEL 

The International Association of Entertainment Lawyers - the IAEL - was officially founded in 1977 at Midem in Cannes, France.  However for three year prior to that the lawyers who were to become the Association's founding members had been holding informal seminars and discussion groups for Midem participants interested in the legal aspects of the entertainment industry. 

Over the past forty-six years, the IAEL has come to fulfill a unique role for lawyers involved in the entertainment industry throughout the world.  It has expanded enormously in terms of both the numbers of its members and the scope of its activities. Nonetheless, continuity of membership (some of the founding members of the Association are still actively involved with the IAEL) combined with the energy of its officers, past and present, mean that the IAEL's style remains distinctly personal and informal.

IAEL members have areas of expertise that cover nearly all aspects of entertainment law.  If you are a lawyer or executive working in the entertainment industries, you may wish to find out about joining the Association or merely to contact us via Duncan Calow at duncan.calow@dlapiper.com.