IBMA webinar on streaming licenses May 18

The International Bluegrass Music Association is hosting another of its IBMA365 educational webinars next week on Facebook. This one is focused on the legal issues surrounding offering live streaming events online, and what sort of licenses are required to do so.

Titled Streaming Licensing for Venues, Presenters, and Festivals, the May 18 presentation will include information and comments from attorneys and experts in this burgeoning field, moderated by Patrice O’Neill, Wintergrass founder and Director.

This panel has been assembled to address matters of concern to event producers who would like to offer some or all of their live stage content online as well. While this has been a growing part of the live music business for some time, the COVID19 restrictions since 2020 have brought it front and center, and the legal concerns are ones that many attorneys are not up to date on.

Presenting will be:

  • Dr. Richard James Burgess – President and CEO of A2IM
  • Ashley Joyce – Senior Vice President, Legal & Business Affairs at National Music Publishers’ Association
  • Robert Meitus – Partner, Meitus Gelbert Rose LLP and Co-founder and VP of Industry Relations at Mandolin
  • Rusty Weiss – Partner, Sidley Austin LLP

The webinar is scheduled for noon (CDT) on Tuesday, May 18 using Facebook Live. There is no charge to attend, and you do not need to be an IBMA member.

The IBMA has provide these thumbnail bios of the participants.

CEO for the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), Richard James Burgess Ph.D. has produced, recorded and performed on many gold, platinum, and multi-platinum albums. He was previously head of business at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings where he produced Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology, chronicling the history of jazz. His career path includes: studio musician, recording artist, producer, manager, and label owner. He is known for his pioneering work with synthesizers, computers, sampling, EDM, New Romantics, early house music, as the inventor of the SDSV drum synthesizer, and for coining the music genre terms EDM and New Romantic. His current books are, The Art of Music Production: The Theory and Practice, 4th Edition and The History of Music Production (Oxford University Press). Burgess has received awards as a producer and musician from Music Week, the British Arts Council, the Greater London Arts Association, the Park Lane Group, and most recently he won the 2016 British Council’s Education UK Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.

Ashley Joyce joined the National Music Publishers Association in 2020 and manages NMPA’s Copyright Royalty Board proceedings, copyright infringement litigation, and all related enforcement efforts. Ashley also negotiates model industry settlement and license agreements, and supports NMPA’s overall legal, business, and policy objectives.

Before joining NMPA, Ashley was a senior associate at DLA Piper in Washington, DC, focusing on trademark and copyright litigation in federal courts throughout the country, as well as proceedings before the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. For nearly a decade, she litigated cases for clients in the retail, media, and technology sectors, handling all aspects of litigation from pre-suit consultations through appeals. In addition to domestic enforcement matters, Ashley advised clients on international conflicts and Internet issues, as well as exploitation of intellectual property assets with strategic registration, licensing, and settlement efforts.

Prior to DLA Piper, Ashley clerked for U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr. in the Eastern District of California and was a corporate associate at King & Spalding LLP in New York City. Ashley graduated cum laude from Duke University and Washington University School of Law.

She is a member of the California, District of Columbia, and New York bars.

Robert Meitus is Co-founder and VP of Industry Development at Mandolin, a new concert livestreaming service. Meitus has practiced entertainment law since the early 2000’s, representing clients, including Cage the Elephant, Sufjan Stevens, John Prine, I’m With Her, Shawn Colvin, Joshua Bell, The Alan Parsons Project, and Third Eye Blind. Meitus is an adjunct professor of law at the IU Maurer School of Law and received his J.D. from Maurer, his masters of international affairs from Columbia University, and his B.A. from Wabash College. He is a GRAMMY voting member.

Rusty Weiss is a partner in Sidley’s Century City office and a member of the Technology and IP Transactions practice and Media and Entertainment industry group. Rusty represents clients in the media, entertainment, music, sports, and technology industries on complex transactions with a particular focus on transactions involving the convergence of entertainment and technology.

In the media and entertainment industries, Rusty represents motion picture, television, video game, cable, mobile, internet, telecommunications, music, toy, eSports, and multimedia companies. He structures, negotiates and drafts a broad range of agreements for these clients, involving the financing, acquisition, development, production, marketing, promotion, branding, distribution, publishing, sale, and other exploitation of motion pictures, television and internet programming, video games, eSports leagues and tournaments, music, and consumer products.

In the technology industry, Rusty represents consumer electronics, cleantech, fintech, software, wireless, and semiconductor companies on their most important matters, including strategic alliances and joint ventures, technology development, licensing and procurement agreements, big data analytics and transactions, outsourcing and services arrangements, mergers and acquisitions, manufacturing and supply arrangements, distribution and reseller relationships, co-marketing agreements and venture capital deals.

Frequently recognized in various legal publications for his achievements, Rusty was recommended in The Legal 500 US (2014, 2016 – 2017), The Best Lawyers in America (2010 – 2021) and Euromoney’s Expert Guides. He was named by Variety in its Legal Impact Report (2017 – 2018, 2020 – 2021) and also by Variety in its 2019 Dealmakers Impact Report. In 2014 the Los Angeles Business Journal named Rusty one of their “Most Influential Lawyers in Digital Media and Ecommerce Law.”

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.