Technology & Science
Jul. 25, 2000
Fast Law
By Xenia P. Kobylarz. It's a sign of the times when a 26-year veteran entertainment lawyer like Christopher Murray has turned to counseling Internet start-ups. A copyright specialist, Murray for years worked exclusively with Hollywood producers and studio executives.
It's a sign of the times when a 26-year veteran entertainment lawyer like Christopher Murray has turned to counseling Internet start-ups.
A copyright specialist, Murray for years worked exclusively with Hollywood producers and studio executives. When he started practicing, movies were shown only in theaters and on television, and videocassettes hadn't been invented. Back then, he says, copyright lawyers were based either in Hollywood or New York, and all they needed to do to keep up with entertainment law was read "Daily Variety."
But today the 51-year-old partner with O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles heads not just the firm's entertainment group but also its new media and technology practice. Along with his "Daily Variety," Murray now reads computer publications and gets daily e-mail updates on the latest tech news. The shift may be nothing more significant than a change of job title and reading habits, but to Murray and many of his peers, it is a symbol of a new age when the marriage of two industries - technology and entertainment - can transform a highly specialized field into a red-hot practice.
"Copyright law is no longer a small-town practice exclusive to Hollywood and New York," Murray says.
"The Internet gave birth to 'content,' which covers all human expressions from music, books, movies, software to video games, cutting across all industries and businesses. Entertainment lawyers are now required to cover this new digital platform and understand its underlying technology," he adds.
The Internet has been in existence for more than 30 years now, but it was only several years ago that the technology was developed for audio and video files to be transmitted with ease on the Web. The advent of data compression technology (MP3) and network programs like Napster and Gnutella have facilitated the free distribution and reproduction of copyrighted works online. In a matter of seconds, protected materials from music to television shows to movies can be distributed all over the world.
Murray says this innovation has revolutionized mass media and raised legal issues that challenge traditional legal frameworks.
"It is fundamentally different than any of the existing media, and it is forcing all of us to think outside the box and be very inventive," Murray notes.
"The practical enforceability of copyright law is changing day to day. The question of how it applies to digital media is yet to be answered," he says.
The new technology has triggered a world war over intellectual property that has forced copyright lawyers onto the front lines. In fact, the proliferation of Internet-related copyright suits has made the role of copyright lawyers indispensable, says Cydney Tune, a partner at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro in San Francisco.
"The Internet and e-commerce have led to an explosion in copyright issues," Tune says.
"Traditionally, it was relatively easy for copyright owners to control their property and to become aware of infringement, but with the Internet and new technologies there are many more opportunities for piracy, which are difficult to handle and monitor. And this has led to a huge demand for copyright attorneys," she explains.
The Hollywood-meets-Silicon Valley phenomenon has created such a gaping need for copyright lawyers with technology backgrounds that it actually has cut both ways: Not only have traditional copyright lawyers gone high-tech, but practitioners who once stuck to software licensing and Internet law have become show business-savvy.
Tune believes this trend has caused a major shift in the copyright practice, moving the center of power in the entertainment industry from Los Angeles and New York to Silicon Valley. Software entrepreneurs enjoy the same status as movie moguls while entertainment and software copyright lawyers share the same domain.
"There is so much more content in the Internet than in any other form of media that lawyers in Silicon Valley are at the epicenter of copyright issues relating to the new technology and the Internet," Tune says.
High-tech lawyer Mark Radcliffe, a partner at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich in Palo Alto, says the Internet has so blurred the lines between entertainment and technology that his practice no longer solely focuses on software licensing but also has expanded to include books and films.
"Issues that used to be the peculiar domain of entertainment lawyers are now issues most Internet lawyers have to deal with," Radcliffe explains. "Now everybody doing Internet law has got to know copyright."
Ronald Johnston, chairman of the University of Southern California Computer and Internet Law Institute and a partner at Arnold & Porter in Los Angeles, says copyright issues have so affected lawyers across the board that even those who thought they'd never get involved in copyright law are now trying to master it. He says all the lawyers in his firm, whatever their specialty, now know the fundamentals of copyright.
"Copyright questions have become very basic to the way business is conducted online," Johnston explains.
"If you represent a brick-and-mortar company you're not normally concerned about copyright laws, but if you're helping the same company go online you are suddenly thrust into a whole new area. Once a company goes online it becomes a distributor of content, and that has a lot of copyright implications," he says.
If you ask Mark Sobel how the Internet has transformed his copyright practice, he might be inspired to burst into song. The San Francisco-based Graham & James partner thinks Stephen Sondheim could have been referring to the digital age in "A Little Night Music" when he wrote the lyric, "Perpetual anticipation is good for the soul but it's bad for the heart."
"Many of us find this an exciting time but it is also a trying time," Sobel says. "One still has to learn the rules, but with the realization that the rules can change overnight."
Such is the life of a copyright lawyer these days, according to Sobel. He compares practicing copyright law in the Internet age to pedaling a bicycle as fast as you can while trying to climb a steep hill.
"It's virtually impossible," Sobel says.
"Each time a new technology comes out, it requires us to address new issues surrounding it and perhaps pass new laws. And with the global nature of the Internet, the law will no longer be confined to a certain geographic area. The revolution is taking place not just in 50 states, but in hundreds of countries all over the world," he says.
Even authors in the field admit they can't keep up with everything that's been written.
"I used to be able to read all the copyright decisions there were," says Radcliffe, who's authored several books on the Internet and copyright. "But things move much more quickly now and I have to be more selective in the type of things I follow."
"Development in case laws and new laws are happening so fast and furious that there has been an explosion of new knowledge in the area," agrees David Nimmer, of counsel to Los Angeles-based Irell & Manella and author of the standard treatise "Nimmer on Copyright." He revises his book three times a year to keep it up to date.
Pillsbury's Tune predicts copyright lawyers eventually will catch up as the case law matures and issues become clearer.
"It will be less pioneering and be a more traditional law practice, just like before," she says.
But in the meantime Tune advises everyone to prepare for some knotty challenges and an avalanche of work.
"You have a situation where everyone is trying to apply existing copyright law, which was developed for a certain media, in a new context," she says. "This requires new thinking and allows us to be pioneers."
Staff Writer
For reprint rights or to order a copy of your photo:
Email
jeremy@reprintpros.com
for prices.
Direct dial: 949-702-5390
Send a letter to the editor:
Email: letters@dailyjournal.com