• Introduction
• Music and Entertainment Committee
• Media Law Committee
• Sports Law
• Arts and Cultural Law Committee

Introduction
The Arts, Entertainment, Media & Sports Law (AEMS) Section completed another year of successful programming and networking in 2011–12. The section’s membership draws from a wide variety of practice areas; consequently, its activities are widely varied. The steering committee comprised nine members, Lita Rosario, Kenneth M. Kaufman, Bradley Thomas, Karl Means, Andy Mirsky, Elizabeth D. Blumenfeld, John Simson, Philip Cardinale and Alonzo Barber. Their Liaison from the D.C. Bar Board of Governors was Stephen L. Glover. The section was lead by cochairs Lita Rosario and Andrew Mirsky and Finance Officer John L. Simson.

Newly elected members of the steering committee for the 2012-2013 year are Danielle M. Aguirre of the National Music Publishers' Association, Jennifer A. Harper of Jackson Lewis LLP, Danielle M. Aguirre - National Music Publishers’ Association, Jennifer A. Harper - Jackson Lewis LLP, and Rand E. Sacks - The Sacks Group, PLLC.

Activities are generally organized under four practice areas: music and entertainment, media, art & culture, and sports. Each of these focus areas is represented by a committee.
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Music and Entertainment Committee
The Music and Entertainment Committee was led by Chair Kenneth M. Kaufman and Vice Chair Alonzo Barber. This year the committee produced a timely panel discussion entitled Termination of Copyright Grants: What Every IP Practitioner Should Know. A panel of copyright attorneys and experts discussed legal, procedural, substantive and practical issues surrounding terminations of transferred copyrights under sections 203 and 304 of the Copyright Act. The panel provided useful instruction and discussion surrounding this valuable right available to authors and their heirs, which allows the “re-capture” of copyrights once transferred in written agreements to third–parties. The cochair of the AEMS Section, Lita Rosario, moderated the panel which included Kenneth M. Kaufman, Esq., Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, Janet Fries, Esq., Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, Terrie Bjorklund, Esq. SAG/AFTRA, and Erik Bertin, Esq., Attorney Advisor U.S. Copyright Office. The program was featured in the Docket Section of the Washington Lawyer and was the section’s first attempt at a webinar. This event was cosponsored by SAG/AFTRA as well as the Corporation, Finance and Securities Law and Intellectual Property Law Sections of the District of Columbia Bar. There will be an encore presentation of this timely program for the 2012-2013 year.
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Media Law Committee
The Media Law Committee, led by Kurt Wimmer and Jim McLaughlin, held heard presentations from over 30 speakers this past year at its Media Law Brown Bag Lunch Series. The Media Law Committee Brown Bag Lunch Series meets monthly in an informal lunch atmosphere at Covington & Burling LLP to discuss recent media and communications law developments. To name a few, the series included guest speakers from the Newspaper Association of America, National Public Radio, The Washington Post Company, Public Citizen, Student Press Law Center, and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Guest speakers discussed relevant topics, including the hot–news doctrine, issues affecting reporters, the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. EMA affirming the Ninth Circuit’s invalidation of a California statute regulating the sale and marketing of “violent” video games, bloggers rights, etc. This year the Media Committee’s Brown Bag Luncheon Series was featured in the Docket Section of the Washington Lawyer.

Additionally, the Media Committee sponsored a program titled “Fleeting Expletives” and Broadcast Regulation: A Review of Fox Television Stations v. FCC Arguments. On January 10, 2012, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Fox v. FCC, which challenged the constitutionality of the FCC’s indecency regulations. The arguments presented issues about the correct First Amendment standard to apply for television content regulation in the new-media environment, and addressed fundamental questions of the government’s constitutional authority to regulate the media—a theme that was picked up in the petitions for certiorari challenging the Third Circuit’s decision to uphold the FCC’s authority to regulate media ownership. Supreme Court and FCC advocates Jason E. Rademacher of Dow Lohnes acted as the moderator, and the panel featured Paul M. Smith of Jenner & Block Christopher Landau, Kirkland & Ellis, LLP Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Media Access Project reviewed the Fox arguments and projected potential outcomes. The program was cosponsored (in name only) by the Intellectual Property, Courts, Lawyers and the Administration of Justice, Corporation, Finance and Securities Law, Administrative Law and Agency Practice and International Law Sections of the District of Columbia Bar.
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Sports Law Committee
The Sports Law Committee partnered with International Dispute Resolution Committee of the International Law Section to produce an outstanding, informative and well attended panel discussion with three prominent international sports arbitrators, Jim Carter of Dewey & LeBoeuf, David Rivkin of Debevoise, and Richard Naimark of the American Arbitration Association to speak about international sports arbitration. The event was a catered lunch at the offices of Arnold & Porter. The AEMS Section introduced the Sports Law Association to cosponsor this program.
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Arts and Cultural Law Committee
The Arts and Cultural Law Committee was led by Chair Janet Fries. The Arts and Cultural Law Committee made its annual contribution to the District of Columbia Practice Manual for the Art Law and Zoning and Historic Preservation chapters. The Arts and Cultural Law Section also expects to produce a “Legislative Update on Arts Issues” Program in the 2012–2013 Bar year.
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