To view photos from the Grammy Event, click here. http://picasaweb.google.com/CardozoAELJ/GrammyFoundationAndAELJ

On November 1, 2007, AELJ, in partnership with the ABA Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries and the New York Chapter of The Recording Academy, hosted the Grammy Foundation Annual Event. This year, the event was entitled Why Record Companies Can’t Make Money Selling Records. A panel of music industry executives and artist representatives discussed how and why record companies need to expand their interest beyond the traditional record-buying market and how this agenda affects recording agreement negotiations going forward

Opening remarks were presented by Ken Abdo (ELI Executive Committee Chair, Lommen Abdo Law Firm). The featured panelists were: Michael L. Reinhart, Esq. (Executive VP, Business & Legal Affairs, Universal Motown Records Group); Vernon J. Brown, Esq., CPA (President, V. Brown & Co.); Bob Frank (President, KOCH Records & KOCH Music Publishing); Michael Kushner (Executive VP, Business & Legal Affairs, Atlantic Records); Clark Miller (Executive VP & General Counsel, EMI Music Publishing); David Sonenberg (President, DAS Communications, Ltd.

The Annual Grammy Event is one of the highlights of the year for AELJ and was a huge success!!

To view photos from the Cocktail reception click here. http://www.picasaweb.google.com/CardozoAELJ/AELJAlumniCocktailReceptionFall200702

The Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law on February 28, 2007 from 6:30-9:30pm. Over 100 AELJ alumni, Cardozo graduates practicing in the arts and entertainment and intellectual property fields, and AELJ authors attended.

Stephen Scotch-Marmo (Editor-in-Chief) and Alexis Weissberger (Executive Editor) greeted the guests and introduced Professor Justin Hughes (faculty advisor). The Honorable Jukka Liedes (Chair, Standing Committee on Copyright, WIPO) gave the first keynote address and discussed the Berne Convention revision efforts that gave birth to the WIPO Copyright Treaty/Performances and Phonograms Treaty up until the current broadcast-rights debate. Next, Professor David Nimmer (author of Nimmer on Copyright) recalled his long association with the Journal and reflected on the domestic orientation of U.S. legal writing on copyright.

A sit-down buffet dinner followed. Dinner toasts to AELJ were given by: Dean David Rudenstine, Nancy Sparling (a leading founder of AELJ), Professor Monroe Price (former Dean and multiple contributor), Mark Levinsohn (Editor-in-Chief, volume 1), Peter Yu (editor of the 20th anniversary compilation), Lynne Beresford (Commissioner of Trademarks), and Joseph Baranello (Editor-in-Chief, volume 24). To read excerpts of these toasts, click here.

On October 12, 2006, AELJ held a workshop for law journal editors across the country to discuss the growing momentum of the open access movement in scholarly literature. This movement seeks to revolutionize the model of relationship between information providers and end users.

There were three sessions for the evening: 1) an interactive presentation comparing author’s agreements; 2) a dinner lecture by Professor Michael Carroll of Villanova University School of Law, and a member of the Board of Directors of Creative Commons, Inc., on the open access movement in scholarship in general, and how it has specifically developed in the field of law; and 3) a roundtable discussion on the future of law reviews, the appropriate division of rights between journals and authors, open access, and the possibility of collective action among law journals.

Some of the specific issues discussed included: How should rights be split between journal and authors, particularly within the context of the possibilities and limitations of new publication technologies? Given the significance of publication to academic career advancement, do journals have a responsibility to inform professors about the nature of their rejections? Do student-run journals have the independence to make decisions of open access, given the journals’ importance to the prestige of their sponsoring schools, as well as the legal training of their staff members and editorial boards?