Digital Hollywood: The AI Summer Summit
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2024
5– 5:50 PM Eastern Time Zone
Session II:
The Elvis Act: The Tennessee Deep Fake 2024 Law
Is this the first of many, a prelude to a “Federal Law” or an interesting step to secure the “Individual Rights in the face of Deep Fakes,” serving as a bellwether for future legislation, but ultimately not the final word on the subject. Tennessee’s “Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act” passed earlier by their state legislature this year and exclusively limited to Tennessee residents is directed specifically to the issues of “Deep Fakes” and to the protection of Recording Artists and others impacted by “Voice Cloning” and other AI technologies. In this session, our speakers will address the specifics of “The Elvis Act,” with the thought that this piece of legislation is likely a “Canary in a Coal Mine,” one of the first legislative steps that may indicate of how public and political sympathies could be harbingers of AI legislation and legal decisions coming in the future.
Speakers:
Christopher Kenneally, Award-Winning Podcast Host/Producer, Moderator
Edward Klaris, Managing Partner, Klaris Law
Angela L. Dunning, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
David C. Johnson,
Partner, Lippes Mathias LLP
Angela L. Dunning
Christopher Kenneally
Edward Klaris
David C. Johnson
Kevin J. Greene
Edward Klaris is the managing partner at Klaris Law and CEO of KlarisIP. He founded the firms in 2015 after having been a litigator at Davis Wright Tremaine, as well as a 17-year stint in-house at ABC/Disney, The New Yorker, and Condé Nast. Since 2005, Ed has been an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, teaching media law and intellectual property. Since starting Klaris, Ed and the firm have been awarded for their outstanding work many times by such prestigious organizations as Chambers, Best Lawyers, US News & World Report, and the NY Law Journal. The Financial Times and Inc. 5000 both awarded the firm one of the fastest growing businesses in North America. The firm prides itself on being highly responsive to clients and providing first class legal services at reasonable rates fit to client needs. Ed has thrived at building a strong practice and cares deeply about surrounding himself with smart, open-minded colleagues, who share his passion for the work. Over the course of Ed’s career, he has represented clients in a range of business sectors, serving as an advisor and advocate for companies of all sizes. His media and entertainment practice covers publishing, podcasting, movie and TV production, documentaries, pre-publication review, licensing, content distribution, technology, virtual reality, machine learning, online subscriptions and e-commerce businesses, as well as many clients in the arts. Ed’s trademark practice includes studios, major hospitality businesses, producers of luxury goods, lifestyle and gaming companies. The firm has connections with a large network of intellectual property firms around the world. Ed has published many articles and contributed to several books, including three chapters in the American Bar Association’s “Intellectual Property and Technology Due Diligence” published in 2018. He speaks at conferences around the world and is an active member of the Media Law Resource Center and the Association of the Bar of the City of NY. He raised his two children in NYC and now also spends part of the year working from Los Angeles. Ed graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College and was the Editor-in-Chief of the Arts & Entertainment Law Journal at Cardozo Law School. He is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, and the federal and state courts in New York.
Kevin J. Greene joined Southwestern’s faculty in 2020. Professor Greene is a nationally recognized entertainment and intellectual property law scholar and an expert witness consultant for copyright, trademark, publicity rights, and entertainment contract disputes. He is a highly committed, outstanding teacher as well as a passionate leader and an IP law influencer. He teaches Contracts and Copyright Law. Professor Greene was most recently a tenured Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. In addition to Contracts and Copyright, he has also taught IP, Entertainment Law, Music Law, Publicity Rights, International Entertainment Law, and IP in the Cannabis Industry. Before becoming a law professor, Professor Greene practiced law in New York at the premier law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he represented high profile companies such as Time Warner and HBO in litigation matters. He later joined New York’s top entertainment law boutique firm, where he represented clients such as film production companies, including Director Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule film company, iconic music artists including Harry Connick, Jr., Bobby Brown, and the seminal rap group Public Enemy. Professor Greene was the first law professor voted a Top Ten attorney by the San Diego Bar in the field of IP in 2005. Professor Greene's scholarship has garnered national and international recognition in the area of intellectual property (“IP”) law, particularly his pioneering work on African-American music and inequality in copyright law. His article on abusive trademark litigation, published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy has been the centerpiece of law conferences at Syracuse Law School and NYU. Greene's copyright scholarship is cited in numerous legal publications and has been cited in Congressional hearings. His current project explores intellectual property in the context of hip-hop music. In 2016, the Intellectual Property Institute of the State Bar of California selected Professor Greene as its Vanguard Award winner, the highest award given by the Bar, in the category of Academics. Also in 2016, the government of Taiwan hosted Professor Greene to present a seminar on copyright issues in the context of hip-hop music. In 2018, the American Bar Foundation selected Greene as a fellow. In 2020, Professor Greene was selected by the National Bar Association as a "top 100" attorney in California. Also in 2020, Professor Greene was named an Honorary Advisor/Law Scholar at USIA United Sigma Intelligence Association, an international think tank.
Angela Dunning is a litigation partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. She has over 20 years of experience litigating copyright, trademark, trade secrets, and unfair competition/false advertising cases, as well as complex commercial disputes, for major global companies. She has tried numerous cases to a jury verdict and has substantial experience in the federal appellate courts, including successful arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in high-profile, published cases such as Elliott v. Google (affirming that the famous GOOGLE trademark is not generic), Naruto v. Slater (affirming dismissal of the “Monkey Selfie” copyright case), and Close v. Sotheby’s et al. (affirming dismissal of claims against eBay under the California Resale Royalty Act on copyright pre-emption grounds). Angela is a leader in the bar on litigation issues relating to generative artificial intelligence. She is currently defending Midjourney and Meta Platforms in AI copyright class action lawsuits directed to the training and output of generative AI models, advises other leading companies on AI risk and strategy, and frequently speaks on cutting edge IP issues related to this area. World Trademark Review describes Angela as a “high-caliber trial lawyer,” as well as a “great writer and strategist who leaves no stone unturned in developing her positions.” She has been repeatedly named one of the “Top 100 Women Lawyers in California” by Daily Journal and a leading lawyer for commercial disputes by The Legal 500 U.S. Angela has taught trademark law at UC Berkeley School of Law since 2023. In 2008, she served as an assistant district attorney for the City and County of San Francisco under then-District Attorney Kamala Harris.