Zoom EventWednesday, October 14, 2020 @ 7:00 p.mSubstantial Confusion: The Ninth’s Circuit’s Approach to Early Dismissal of Literary Works Cases With beaches, movie theaters and amusement parks closed for business, the Ninth Circuit spent its summer vacation deciding four substantial similarity cases involving The Shape of Water, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inside Out and Empire. In unpublished opinions, the Court affirmed early dismissals in two of the cases, but reversed in the other two, leaving copyright lawyers and district court judges trying to make sense of it all. On October 14, the Los Angeles Copyright Society will host a panel of experts who will explore the Ninth Circuit’s approach to substantial similarity, tackling such issues as when lawsuits can be dismissed prior to discovery, the role of expert witnesses, and the process district court judges may use to decide these cases going forward. We’ll be joined by Elaine Kim, partner at Mitchell Silberberg who’s represented defendants in many substantial similarity matters, as well as Peter Afrasiabi, partner at One LLP who’s handled these cases on the plaintiffs’ side. Moderating the panel will be LACS immediate past president Aaron Moss, who chairs the litigation department at Greenberg Glusker and has covered these cases for his blog Copyright Lately.
| 2020-2021 OFFICERS & TRUSTEES
Catherine Bridge President-Elect Tantalo & Adler LLP
Treasurer Dan Nabel Trustees Peter Anderson Jacqueline Charlesworth Daniel M. Flores Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. Jamie Frieden Frieden Wolf Law Ben Sheffner
Motion Picture Association, Inc. Ian Slotin
Aaron Moss |
Virtual Cocktail Pre-Event We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting a short virtual cocktail/networking event to take place from 6:30-7:00pm on Wednesday, October 14th, immediately before our scheduled program. The event is open to all Members, Associates and guests who have registered for that evening’s program. Please bring your beverage of choice and join us. Participants will be assigned to breakout groups to facilitate informal conversations in a way that we hope can replicate the “happy hours” that used to accompany our in-person events. To help facilitate conversations, each group will include at least one current LACS Trustee. For this networking event, we invite participants to share a favorite quote, case, film, or anecdote about the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Copyright-themed contributions are encouraged, but not required! Additionally, whether you plan to join the networking event of not, we invite you to send your favorite passage from an RBG opinion, or any personal anecdote about her, to our board President, Catherine Bridge, at lacspresident@gmail.com. We’ll share our favorite contributions with the group at the beginning of the main event. Participation in the virtual networking event will require via a separate registration and Zoom link. Click here to Register. |