Source: https://flyingreptilemediagroup.com/curriculum-vitae/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 08:15:47+00:00

Document:
William (“Bill”) Hart is a well-known New York City copyright lawyer with deep, long-standing experience as both a litigator and transactional lawyer in complex copyright matters across a range of industries: music publishing, literary works, fine art, architecture and technology, among others.
Many of his cases are considered landmarks in the law and he has been lead copyright counsel in the acquisition, sale and valuation of some of the most significant music catalogs in the world. Bill retired from lawyering in November 2014, after 33 years of very active practice.
Bill now consults in the music and technology fields. He has over four decades of experience in the audio recording arts and writes extensively on modern music history and recordings. Bill is also an adjunct professor at UT Law School in Austin, Texas where he teaches an Advanced Copyright/Media Rights course and a basic Copyright Law course. Bill and his wife Liz recently relocated to Austin, TX. as their permanent residence.
Project development in various creative arts and media: music, books, film and the Internet.
Music history, essays, articles and interviews with a focus on analog recording arts from the 1950s-1970s, including essays published in the National Recording Registry maintained by the U.S. Library of Congress to acknowledge sound recordings that are of historical and cultural importance.
Bill Hart served as an expert witness on U.S. Copyright law in a case in London involving rare concert footage of The Beatles—the so-called “Lost Concert”—providing written reports to the court on the copyright status of the film and its relationship to the separate rights in the musical compositions. At trial, Mr. Hart was called to testify on a subset of issues concerning the “fair use” doctrine under U.S. law.
Litigation and transactional practice devoted to copyright with emphasis on content protection and acquisition and sale of entertainment catalogs, traditional literary property and technology licensing. Notable cases include: Premier League v. YouTube/Google; Universal City Studios v. Reimerdes (2d Cir.); Silvers v. Sony (9th Cir., en banc) Video Pipeline v Buena Vista Home Ent. (amicus, 3d Cir.); A & M Records, et al v. Napster (9th Cir.) Transactional: Estate of Otis Blackwell (wrote top Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis songs); Elvis (sale of catalog); represented bidders of Warner Bros. Music, Arc (Chess Records) Music.
Notable cases include RTC v. Netcom (bedrock of DMCA ‘takedown provisions’) as well as numerous formative cases in the US and Europe governing ISP liability for copyright infringement. Catalog representation included acquisition and consolidation of worldwide Bob Marley rights, Jimmy Webb, Barrett Strong, Marvin Gaye and Rachmaninoff catalogs.
Notable cases include Cliffs Notes v. Doubleday (2d Cir); Demetriades v. Kaufmann (SDNY) (copyright in architecture). Involved in numerous matters for celebrity recording artists including Madonna, Bob Marley, Run-DMC and many others. Contributor to Milgrim on Trade Secrets (copyright and antitrust chapters); represented Arthur Fellig (‘Weegee’) estate in connection with catalog of famous ‘noir’ photographs.
Contributed to expansion of Lanham Act 43(a) in numerous cases involving character licensing rights (Smurf, Muppets, Cabbage Patch, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears); involved in Reader’s Digest v. Nation (Gerald Ford memoirs case); worked on recording contracts for CBS and RCA Records for Bob Dylan, Hall & Oates and many others.
Advanced Copyright and Trademark – drawing together copyright, trademark, right of publicity, trade secret and unfair competition principles in a variety of real world litigation and transactional settings, including sales, licensing and other transactions; due diligence of intellectual property rights; transactional and litigation aspects of music, software, text and other forms of ‘content delivery’ in both traditional and developing media.
Founding Member, Pittsburgh Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Recipient, Local Nathan Burkan Prize.

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