RAP is an organization that matches up musicians looking for legal advice with law students interested in entertainment law. The group also works with independent record labels and music websites. The work itself covers a broad range of legal issues including trademarks, copyrights, contracts, and transactions.

I had heard about RAP at a panel on student practice organizations that the law school held a couple weeks ago. I have always been fascinated by the way that the law regulates art and how that in turn affects both artists and content distributors. When I heard that not only did Harvard have an organization that catered to this interest but also that this organization took first year students, I jumped at the opportunity to join. 

Last weekend, RAP held their semesterly training session for new recruits. The group brought in a prominent entertainment lawyer (who has, among others, the hip-hop group Jedi Mind Tricks as a client). He talked with us about the copyright and trademark issues in music and then walked us through the basics of marking up a record contract. It was pretty exciting to have someone with practical knowledge in a field I am interested in talk candidly about what their job entailed.

Yesterday, I received my first assignment. I will be working with a team of three other law students to help a local electronica band review the record deal they were recently offered. It is my first semester of law school and I am already getting hands-on experience in a field of law that has always fascinated me. This is just another testament to the sheer number of opportunities that HLS provides its students.

- Anit

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=529313

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/10/law-students-venture-into-new-field/

What is the public interest auction?
The public interest auction is a fundraiser run entirely by the 1L class that raises money to support students who do public interest work over the summer. We solicit donations from faculty, staff, alumni, parents, students, firms, and local businesses. Some donate money and some donate things to auction off. We receive all sorts of donations – things like Red Sox tickets, gift certificates to restaurants and salons, lunches and fishing trips with professors, cookies and brownies made by the librarians, and a tour of the Northwest Corner Construction project. The auction is one of the biggest social events of the year. Every year the auction has a theme, and we decorate Austin Hall accordingly. This year the theme was “Bright Lights: Bid City” and so the different rooms were decorated as different big cities – London, Paris, and New York.

What has gone into preparing for this event and what have you gotten out of the experience as a co-chair?
Almost all of the 1L class helps out with the auction. We divide the students up by committees and committees mostly help out either by asking for donations, calling alumni and asking them to donate, emailing firms, going door to door in Cambridge, or by helping process the donations and get them ready to sell, or by helping out on the night of the auction. As one of the auction co-chairs, I had the opportunity to work with a group of amazing people to try to plan and coordinate this huge event – it was definitely a  challenging experience for all of us. From coordinating hundreds of student volunteers to keeping track of hundreds of donations, to making sure everything comes together on the night of the auction, being a co-chair was a lot of work, but it was extremely rewarding. It was also a good opportunity to meet new students.

The event is always a lot of fun for students, faculty and staff. What was your favorite part of the evening? Did anything surprise you?
The event was a huge success. My favorite part of the evening was the live auction. Our auctioneers – this year Professors Elizabeth Warren and Jonathan Zittrain – were auctioning off the “right to be – or not be – in the 2010 parody.” The first bidder was the Dean of Students because they gave her a hard time this year in the parody, but then Professor Mann, who bought this item last year, got in a bidding war with Professor Warren and everyone was laughing so hard!

Why should admitted and prospective students seeking a strong public interest community choose Harvard? Why did you?
I think that students looking for a strong public interest community should choose Harvard because they can go anywhere and do anything with a degree from Harvard Law. We are a bigger law school, but as a result, we have so many more options to pick from than other law schools. Good public interest law jobs are really competitive – and since I want one, I’m glad I chose Harvard. I know that the connections and friends that I will make here, with professors and fellow students, will be of benefit for the rest of my life.

The question of whether to apply as a transfer student is the right move is up to you, but we think that a little research will show you the vast benefits of transferring to HLS. With 102 full-time professors and more than 300 courses, HLS is home to the most intellectually stimulating legal community in the world. Outside the classroom, there are 14 journals, over100 student organizations, clinical placements in approximately 30 areas of the law, and more than enough opportunities for you to experience the incredible diversity of the HLS community during your second- and third- year. For example, the Harvard Law Review encourages transfer applicants to apply for membership and several past transfer students have been successful in that endeavor.

Bottom line? Whether you are interested in constitutional law or environmental law or human rights advocacy or any number of other areas, the breadth and depth of our offerings is incredible. Whether you want to clerk at the circuit court level, follow the path to academia, or pursue a career in public service, the opportunities presented to our graduates are unsurpassed.

For more details on the transfer application process including eligibility guidelines, deadlines, and application requirements, please visit: http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/j…

Also, stay tuned in the coming days and weeks for blog entries of a few students talking about their experience transferring into Harvard Law School!

“My decision to spend my Winter Term in Sydney was a relatively easy one. Obviously, weather was a huge factor, but I was also interested in furthering my pre-law school interest in the music business, gaining a new international perspective on the main issues facing the industry. HLS provides the unique opportunity of allowing students to set up a legal internship anywhere in the world with basically any organization, and as appealing as spending my post New Year’s days trudging through the snow from my apartment to Austin Hall sounded, I decided to take advantage.’

“Back in October, I contacted the head of SoundExchange, the performance rights organization where I had interned back in college, and they offered to put me in touch with the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which is the Australian analogue to the RIAA. After exchanging several emails, I clenched a three-week internship at Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), which is the anti-piracy arm of the Australian music industry.’

“MIPI is a small, albeit extremely well-run, organization that coordinates the anti-piracy investigative, policy, and educational activities of ARIA and the Australian music publishers society. My main project has involved researching the liability of Internet Service Providers for their subscribers’ file-sharing and illegal downloading. ARIA has been involved in negotiations with ISPs about the possibility of a three strikes / graduated response / “notice and disconnect” scheme, whereby ISPs would provide file-sharers a series of warnings before cutting off internet service if they were engaged in repeated copyright infringement. The world’s first “three strikes” law will go into effect in New Zealand in February, and France is very close to passing a similar law. Most of my research has been a comparative analysis between Australian and U.S. copyright law regarding ISP liability. The timing is particularly apt, as a couple weeks before I headed down under, the RIAA announced that it would cease suing file-sharers and would instead pursue a “notice and disconnect” scheme with U.S. ISPs.’

“In addition to the ISP research, I have been involved in a handful of other smaller tasks for MIPI. I have responded to inquiries regarding the legality of certain behaviors related to music online, assisted with the organization’s educational efforts by updating consumer facts sheets (e.g. legal issues involving using music on your website), and have also participated in investigative efforts by monitoring eBay Australia for pirated music.’

“Outside of the office, I have spent a lot of time exploring Sydney and will be venturing out to other parts of Australia as the month goes on. I’m living at the University of Sydney in Newtown, which is a cool little neighborhood with a grungy/hipster vibe to it, not unlike the East Village or Central Square. Sydney is a great city with amazing beaches (which I’ve been to approximately every other day, despite the 40 minute bus ride after work), friendly people, and a great music scene. I have tried dearly not to be a tourist and have made an effort to experience the city as the people who live here do.’

“I’ve also tried to immerse myself in the Sydney music scene. Back when I was scouting bands for Everfine Records / Red Light management during my two years off before law school, I came across an Australian singer/songwriter named Andy Bull. Andy has an incredible voice and a great live performance, and although we never ended up signing him, I stayed in touch with his manager and producer. I found out that he was opening for American jam icon Donovan Frankenreiter in Sydney during my first weekend, so I got the opportunity to see him play in front of nearly 1,000 people in his home town. The last time I had seen him play was back in 2006 at a showcase at Piano’s on the Lower East Side – there had been maybe 40 people in the crowd.’

“I can’t really say what my typical day in Sydney is like, but today is a pretty good example. I woke up at around 7 (i.e. 3pm EST) to grab breakfast at the local café and check my email. After realizing that my weekly bus pass expired, I ran to the nearest 7-11 (they are ubiquitous here), bought a new pass, and rushed to the bus stop so I could make it to work on time. After taking two buses and walking about 500 meters, by 9 I arrived at my office in Pyrmont, which is a quiet, predominantly residential neighborhood with some great pubs. I spent the morning working on my ISP research. Usually I grab lunch at one of the local pubs or Thai restaurants with my coworkers, but today everyone brought their own lunch.  I have found that no one here eats lunch at their desk, unlike everywhere I have worked in the U.S . After a productive afternoon continuing my research and working on an educational campaign aimed to inform schoolchildren about copyright law, I headed home and changed into my gym clothes. I took the bus from Newtown to Bondi Beach, where I disembarked and began my 5 kilometer run along the Pacific Coast to Coogee Beach. The run is absolutely stunning, passing along the cliffs and through an incredible (and eerie) seaside cemetery. After arriving at Coogee, I ordered some locally caught fish, had it grilled in front of me, and brought it to the beach, where I ate facing the ocean, as the sun set behind me. I took the bus back to Newtown, where I drank a couple James Squires with my roommates and watched the Australian Open. Not a bad life, right?”

We should say not…

“Essentially, Gawker.com is the outsider’s insider,” said Coen. “How the media has come to be transformed over the last couple of years has really been the work of sites like TMZ… which is an aggressive and ingenius business model of ‘if you wait long enough, someone will come out.’”

When asked about the legal ramifications inherent in what some might say is a business of mudslinging, Coen acknowledged the risks but explained that the editorial/op-ed voice of the website gave the bloggers a long leash. “The managing editor of Gawker and the few attorneys we had didn’t want the writers to fear the repercussion of libel suits,” she said. “In going the corporate route, first at Vanity Fair and now at New York Magazine, I realize how much freedom I had at Gawker.”

On the question of ethical boundaries with regard to celebrities, Coen was, not surprisingly, unsympathetic. “With celebrities, we follow the tabloid media… when you reach a certain level of stardom, you have to be prepared to give your life to the media for better or worse.” For those who become subjects of Gawker’s caricature as a result of their affiliation with celebrities or garner attention for strange antics, Coen was more ambivalent. “It’s very easy to get sucked into the media craze… you sometimes become as bad as the person you’re writing about.”

Please visit the link to HLS Speaks off the JD Admissions home page if you’re interested in these subjects.

The Committee on Sports & Entertainment Law recently hosted a panel discussion titled “Acquiring a Sports Franchise.” The panel featured three lawyers with experience in sports franchise transactions: Adam Klein from Katten Muchin Rosenman in Chicago, Larry Silverstein from Bingham McCutchen in Boston, and Jon Bernstein from Bingham McCutchen in Boston. The other members of the panel were Brad Rangell, an investment banker with Citigroup, and Tony Tavares, the CEO of Sports Properties Acquisition Corp, the first sports & entertainment Special Public Acquisition Corporation (SPAC).

The panel began with a brief overview of the anatomy of a sports franchise transaction, but the majority of the panel focused on the personal experiences of the panelists. Each panelist described the transaction he had been involved in and discussed some of the unique challenges different transactions presented. Joe Meginnes, a first year student at HLS, said that he “really appreciated the breadth of the issues the panel covered, from the aspects inherent in any M&A deal, to league-specific restrictions, to counseling clients on just what it is they’re getting themselves into.”

One of the most interesting issues the panelists discussed was the power of a league commissioner in approving or preventing a transaction. Frequently, sports teams are not sold to the highest bidder because the other owners in the league must approve the transaction. The panelists focused on how suitors of a sports franchise must lobby the commissioner and other owners as part of the transaction process. Lobbying begins as soon as a person decides he or she is interested in purchasing a team and continues throughout the entire process.

The Committee on Sports & Entertainment Law (CSEL) is an organization of HLS students which plans speakers, conferences, and other events throughout the academic year. If you have any questions about the Committee please contact Matt Colman at mcolman@law.harvard.edu.

Dr. Sunshine Hillygus, Director of the Harvard Program on Survey Research, framed civic engagement among youths in terms of capacity to get involved, motivation, and recruitment. “The most effective recruitment to vote comes from people we know, and new opportunities have been created to get people involved in the process,” she said. However, the expansion of instantaneous modes of communication has complicated the engagement process by making it difficult for parties to foment unified support among young voters.

Yet for Nasser Weddady, the Director of Outreach at Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance (HAMSA), it’s not motivation that’s lacking but the freedom to overcome repressive systems that don’t allow for civic engagement. “Our problem at HAMSA is identifying vocal leaders to push reforms online and then of course, how do we transfer online energy into the real world?”

Likewise, Keli Goff, a political analyst on youth and minority voters, believes the internet has succeeded in youth unification. Author of Party Crashing: How the Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence, Goff pointed to the nationwide outcry for the Case of the Jena 6 last year. “Before we get too pessimistic about the power of internet activism, the Case if the Jena 6 put the young black blogosphere on the map.” For Goff, the potential of the Obama campaign is the untold story of the pockets of voters banding together in a peer-to-peer movement.

One of the ways to enlist these “pockets,” suggested recent Yale-grad Paul Selker, is to empower first time voters to do meaningful service. The Director of Outreach and Communications at Obama Works, Selker has been working to “proudsource agency” among students looking to get involved and leave their mark on the cyberworld. “We want to folks to organize and what we give them in return is the prestige of having their own webpage on our site for their local chapters.”

Be sure to check out the Berkman Center’s Tuesday Lunch Series!