Music and copyright protection are at the forefront of the music industry in AI-music creation and streaming. Hear the latest from leading music attorney Richard Busch as he discusses cutting-edge court cases, issues in the music copyright field, and his experiences in protecting musicians and their rights. Q&A and reception to follow.
Richard S. Busch is a Partner and Head of the Entertainment and Intellectual Property Sections of King & Ballow. His practice areas include Litigation (State and Federal), Entertainment Litigation, and Intellectual Property Litigation. Richard has built a reputation as one of the most aggressive and successful litigators in the entertainment industry and he is tireless in his efforts to advocate for musical artists’ rights. He is a top music industry lawyer and has been honored by Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter for the last decade or more. Most recently, Mr. Busch can be seen in the documentary TAYLOR SWIFT vs SCOOTER BRAUN BAD BLOOD currently streaming on Max. The two-part documentary series follows the controversial sale of Taylor Swift’s masters in a deal for $300 million which sparked a public feud that divided fans and celebrities, and he provides his take on the BAD BLOOD feud. Mr. Busch has litigated and won many of the landmark music cases over the last 15 years, including FBT v. Aftermath Records, which established that Eminem’s recording agreement entitled him and his production company to 50 percent of the label’s net receipts for permanent download revenue (which spawned numerous class actions), and the “Blurred Lines” copyright infringement case. He also won both sides of the same issue! In Dimension Films, the Sixth Circuit found that even a second of the digital sampling of a sound recording is infringement and the de minimis defense was not available, while 10 years later he represented Madonna’s producer who allegedly sampled a few seconds of a pre-existing recording and convinced the 9th Circuit not to follow Dimension Films and dismiss the case on de minimis grounds! Mr. Busch has also brought numerous actions against Spotify alleging that Spotify streams musical compositions on its platform without license or payment to publishers and songwriters and challenging the constitutionality of the Music Modernization Act. Most recently, he brought a cutting-edge lawsuit against Pandora, the music streaming service, on behalf of several Comedians for copyright infringement, specifically the Comedians’ spoken word compositions, which is currently pending in a federal court in California. He also regularly consults clients on AI music issues providing practical guidance to assist them in navigating the legal and ethical challenges AI brings.