Small Copyright Claims Court: New Legislation to Help Authors and Creators!

About the Webinar:

Graphic Artists Guild National Advocacy Liaison, Lisa Shaftel with special guests; IP attorney and DMLA Counsel Nancy Wolff, ASMP Executive Director, Thomas Kennedy and Michael Klipper, Law Office of Michael R. Klipper, PLLC tell you about the legislation we’ve been working on together to create a simplified alternative to the federal court system for copyright infringements under $30,000. Every artist, designer and photographer needs to join our grassroots effort to support this legislation. We tell you how in this informative webinar.

About the Presenters:

Lisa Shaftel

Lisa Shaftel served four terms as National Advocacy Committee Chairperson and Executive Committee member of the Graphic Artists Guild.  She is currently the National Advocacy Liaison. As a Guild member since 1985, she previously served on the National Advocacy Committee, and was elected SPGA/Seattle Chapter President for two terms.

As National Advocacy Committee Chair, Lisa assists artists who contact the Guild for help with client/contract disputes, business practices and ethics, and attorney referrals. She educates creative professionals and keeps the Guild in the forefront of the industry on issues affecting artists’ rights, such as copyright and orphan works, by writing Congressional testimonies, Guild White Papers, and a regular column in the “Guild News”. She advocates for artists at Congressional hearings, at meetings and discussions with the U.S. Copyright Office and other organizations representing creative professionals.

Lisa earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Scenic and Lighting Design from the State University of NY- College at Purchase, a Masters of Fine Arts from the Polakov Studio of Stage Design, and a Certificate in Multimedia from the University of Washington Extension.

Thomas Kennedy
Executive Director for American Society of Media Photographers

 www.asmp.org
Thomas R. Kennedy is Executive Director of American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), this country’s leading trade association representing independent photographers working across commercial and editorial genres.

He is an internationally known visual journalist with extensive print, broadcast, and online journalism experience, including positions Managing Editor for Multimedia at The Washington Post, and Director of Photography at the National Geographic Society. He has created, directed, and edited visual journalism projects that have earned Pulitzer Prizes, as well as EMMY, Peabody, and Edward R. Murrow awards.

Previously, he has also worked as an independent consultant coaching and mentoring individual photographers, as well as providing strategic analysis on visual storytelling for media companies and nonprofit organizations. In addition, he has taught regularly at universities and multimedia conferences, and advises about recruiting, coaching, and managing creative talent for optimal performance.

He is a graduate of the University of Florida, with a B.S. degree in journalism, and he serves on the Board of Directors for the Eddie Adams Photo Workshop, and on the Board of Advisors for The School of Visual Communications at Ohio University.

Michael R. Klipper

As counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, in-house counsel to two leading trade associations and in private practice representing trade associations, legislative coalitions, Fortune 500 companies and individual clients, Mr. Klipper has been involved in myriad legal and legislative issues primarily in the areas of copyright and constitutional law.

Copyright Issues

Throughout his legal career, Mr. Klipper has represented clients before Congress and federal agencies on copyright legislative issues. His interest in copyright legislation traces back to his work as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he became immersed in the first wholesale revision of the U.S. copyright law in 67 years. Since his time on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff, Mr. Klipper has been involved in many of the myriad efforts to amend the 1976 Copyright Act both as counsel to two leading trade associations—the Motion Picture Association of America and the Association of American Publishers—and in private practice. Among the legislative issues he has worked on are creation of a small claims copyright court, scope of criminal penalties for copyright infringement, copyright renewal, response to the Supreme Court’s Betamax decision, the implementation of the Berne Copyright Convention, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, pre-emption of contracts under Sec. 301 of the copyright law, fair use of unpublished works, and state immunity from money damages in copyright cases. Currently, Mr. Klipper the American Society of Media Photographers with respect to the House Judiciary Committee’s ongoing review of the 1976 Copyright Act.

Nancy Wolff
Counsel for the Digital Media Licensing Association

 http://www.pacaoffice.org
 www.pacaoffice.org/officers.shtml and http://cdas.com/attorney/nancy_wolff/

Nancy E. Wolff is a member of the Intellectual property, media and entertainment law firm of Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard, LLC located in New York, New York.  She represents a wide range of creative individuals and companies in all areas of digital media, licensing and publishing. In addition to transactional work, she represents clients in state and federal court civil actions as well as arbitration and mediation and is admitted to practice in NY, NJ CA and PA. She is a frequent speaker throughout the United States and Europe on copyright, digital media, and licensing for many organizations. She is the President of the Copyright Society of the USA, Chair of the ABA IP Section Committee On Visual Arts , Dramatic Works and Motion Picture and serves on the ABA Copyright Reform Task Force. She is recognized as a Super Lawyer in Intellectual Property and ranked by Super Lawyers as one of the top 50 female lawyers in New York City.