I’m pleased to announce that the date and venue have been set for Copyright and Technology 2020. The date for our eleventh conference is Wednesday, January 15, 2020, and we will be back at Fordham Law School. Once again, I’m co-producing the event with the Copyright Society of the USA, and the Fordham IP Institute is sponsoring.

As usual, the one-day event will feature a keynote speech in the morning followed by a presentation of new research; then in the afternoon we will split up into two tracks: Technology and Law & Policy.

I’m more than pleased to announce that our keynote speaker will be David Israelite, President and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). The Music Modernization Act is now law, and the group endorsed by the NMPA, Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), and Songwriters of North America (SONA) has been chosen by the U.S. Copyright Office to run the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) that will take streaming data from music services and pay out royalties to songwriters and music publishers. This is the most important development in music copyright infrastructure this year. As one of the main forces behind the deal that led to the MMA, David will have a lot to say about it as the MLC prepares to go live at the beginning of 2021.

At this point we are looking for suggestions of research presentations and afternoon session topics. In recent years we’ve had research presentations on these topics:

• Black box music royalties (Daniel Dewar, Paperchain)
• Effects of anti-piracy techniques on e-book sales (Imke Reimers, Northeastern University)
• Notice and takedown processes (Joe Karaganis, The American Assembly, Columbia University; and Brianna Schofield, UC Berkeley School of Law)

We also have an opportunity for a sponsored session which an organization can create in conjunction with myself; please inquire if you’d like to discuss.

Here are some of the topics I’m thinking of featuring in the afternoon sessions:

• Blockchain technology applications in visual arts
• Controlled Digital Lending and the future of e-books in libraries
• New distribution models for e-books: subscriptions, rentals, and more
• Image infringement search technologies and their evidentiary value
• Copyright issues for non-musical audio: comedy and spoken word

Send me your ideas!  We will aim to publish a full agenda by September.