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Monday, 24 October, 2011 10:00 PM

New e-readers pose additional challenges to entertainment attorneys

by Jason Rzucidlo americajr@americajr.com

WATCH: "Back to the Basics: Complex TV Rights Deals" Panel Discussion at USC

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LOS ANGELES -- The growing popularity of e-readers like the Apple iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook and the Amazon Kindle are adding another level of complexity to the work of entertainment lawyers. Since these devices not only show text, movies and interactive applications, the question becomes who owns the rights to that material? Is it the author of the textbook? The production studio? The designer of the interactive application?

Digital rights management was one of the many topics discussed at the 2011 USC Institute on Entertainment Law and Business. Other topics included the digital distribution of music, social networking vs. ethics and merchandising. The conference took place on Saturday at the USC Gould School of Law in Los Angeles.

Craig Wagner is the executive vice president of business affairs and general counsel at the Paradigm Agency. Previously, he served as senior vice president of business affairs for the television division of Paramount Pictures. Wagner earned his undergraduate degree from UCLA in English and received his law degree from the New York University School of Law.

"The issue is reserve rights," Wagner said. "The Kindle...is that publishing, rebroadcasting? We are one step away from books having interactive components. It is a three-way conflict between the publisher, author and the film industry. We sometimes try and use language that will avoid geographic factors. We allow promotion on the internet."

Sandra M. Ortiz is the senior vice president of business affairs at Twentieth Century Fox Television. She has been working in the entertainment and media field for over 20 years. Ortiz also serves as Director of the USC Center for Communications Law and Policy, which is a joint partnership between the USC Law School and the USC Annenberg School for Communication.

"Now, they're asking for e-books," Ortiz explained. "All of this sounds harmless. The medium is getting ahead of itself. The media allows quite a bit. A lot of times we're dealing with very established broadcasters. Our attitude is capital is king. It's not that way anywhere else in the world. They are intimidated by how many lawyers there are here and the 46-page document."

Melinda Benedek is the executive vice president of business affairs and production for Showtime Networks. Previously, she served as Executive Vice President of Business Affairs for Twentieth Century Fox. Benedek earned a B.A. from Oxford University and her law degree from Columbia University. In addition, she holds a Diplome D'Etudes Juridiques Generales from the University of Paris.

"We do a lot of online promotion," Benedek said. "We would want to do visual novels, webisodes as the books become more interactive. We don't permit performer readings. It's a risk assessment. Figure out who the parties are that are likely to have moral rights."

"Publishing rights can be problematic," said Jody Simon of Peter, Rubin & Simon, LLP. He also served as moderator of the conversation. Simon is a former member of Governor Schwarzenegger's entertainment industry advisory council.

Stacey Snider, Co-Chairman and CEO of Dreamworks Studios, served as the keynote speaker. She made the argument that movie studios may not exist in the future because of the internet.

"We're smaller, we do four to six movies per year," she explained. "You have to be more discerning about everything. We have fewer at-bats. You need to find a release date that gives it it's best chance. Our profits are two-thirds international and one-third domestic. It narrows the kinds of movies we can make. Be superlative in your work. A great sense of entitlement."

The Adventures of Tin Tin opened overseas before it will be here in the United States, Snider said. The film opened in Belgium on Oct. 22 and it will have its U.S. release date on Nov. 11.

"I like making comedies," the Dreamworks CEO admitted. "It's harder to sell comedies overseas. The Hangover was the outlier. VOD (video on demand) is the big opportunity. Bigger public companies are driven by quarterly earnings. We don't have those pressures. I think there will be more consolidation. I wonder whether Google or Yahoo will say 'we can deliver movies ourselves, but we don't need a studio.'"

For more information on the USC Institute for Entertainment Law and Business, visit lawweb.usc.edu/cle/entertainment/

PHOTO BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com

The "Back to the Basics: Complex TV Rights Deals" panel discussion took place in the basement of the Gould School of Law Building.

PHOTO BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com

"We know they're going to edit the show," Wagner said. "We hope the buyer will respect the contract."

PHOTO BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com

"Now, they're asking for e-books," Ortiz said. "All of this sounds harmless. The medium is getting ahead of itself."

PHOTO BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com

"It is movie makers speaking directly to the consumer," Snider said of social media. "We can engage with our fans about what they want to see."

PHOTO BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com

She added: "We asked fans to demand screenings in their own. Now, a franchise is being sustained that way."