Joseph R. Wetzel

Wetzel tends to hear tunes differently because of his heavy involvement in music licensing law. He represents the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Pandora Media Inc. and other King & Spalding clients in navigating the antitrust consent decree governing the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music Inc. in litigation that, one publisher said, "will determine the future of the music publishing and songwriting industries."

For client ESPN, Wetzel this year sued BMI for allegedly refusing to quote reasonable license fees. "ESPN is unique in that music is less important to its programming," Wetzel said. "When it does use music, it has been able to get licenses directly from songwriters, like the composer of the 'SportsCenter' theme song."

But the big sports channel relies on BMI and ASCAP for licenses to fill occasional gaps in direct licenses. "ESPN found what it was paying was way out of line," he said. "When it went to adjust the license terms, BMI saw it differently."

In a complaint before the New York federal judge who oversees such rate disputes under the consent decree, Wetzel argued for a ruling to correct what he contends is a disproportionality. ESPN Inc. v. BMI, 16civ1067 (S.D. N.Y., filed Feb. 11, 2016)

"Our clients pay for licenses and respect music, but fees should bear some relationship to the market," Wetzel said. It doesn't hurt that he's a big ESPN fan.

"Now, I listen more attentively," he said. "Based on the work I do, I walk through life thinking about the music in a different way."

For plaintiff American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Wetzel is lead counsel in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Public.Resource.Org Inc. The issue: whether incorporating by reference of copyrighted, privately developed standards into statutes and regulations effectively nullifies the copyright owners' ability to enforce their copyrights. The case is before a federal judge in the District of Columbia.

Wetzel routinely speaks on music and copyright issues. He teaches music law at UC Berkeley School of Law.

- John Roemer