Getting Off the SOPA Box
What's the latest on the anti-piracy front? Why did the efforts to pass SOPA and PIPA meet unprecedented resistance? If the government can prosecute Megaupload under existing laws, do we need more regulation? Can the gulf between technologists and creators be bridged?
Presenters
TAG Strategic is a digital entertainment consulting firm providing expert strategy, market intelligence, product ideation, business modeling and business development services to multinational companies and select emerging businesses. TAG accelerates business development for its clients and delivers market leadership and sustainable, defensible advantage in the dynamic and rapidly evolving global marketplace.
Integrating his widespread digital authority in music, mobile, IPTV and product & service development, Ted Cohen is the Managing Partner of TAG Strategic.
In an industry that's been slow to embrace change, TED COHEN is the exception to the stereotypical music-exec rule. Of course, when you start a career on the road with Alice Cooper and Van Halen, you're more primed for the unexpected.
Known throughout the technology and music industries as being "part ambassador and part evangelist," Cohen was instrumental in crafting the licensing agreements upon which the Rhapsody subscription service and the iTunes Music Store were built.
In his previous role as Senior Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music (home of artists including Coldplay and the Rolling Stones), Cohen led next-generation digital business development worldwide for this "big four" record company, which includes labels such as Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. During that time, EMI led the industry by embracing and exploiting new technologies and business models such as digital downloads and online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio.
In addition to seeking out, evaluating and executing business opportunities for the company on a global basis, Cohen served as both a strategist and key decision-maker for EMI's global new media and anti-piracy efforts. He worked to establish company-wide digital policies, which have provided EMI's artists and labels a substantial advantage in the digital music arena.
Prior to his role at EMI, Cohen served as Executive Vice President of Digital Music Network Inc., where he co-founded and served as Chairman of the groundbreaking Webnoize conferences.
Cohen also led two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Universal Studios, DreamWorks Records, Liquid Audio, Wherehouse Records/Checkout.com and various other entertainment, technology and new media organizations. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media.
A 30-year industry veteran, Cohen currently chairs MidemNet, an international music/technology conference convened in Cannes each year. Cohen also serves on the NARAS (Grammy) Los Angeles chapter Board of Governors as well as the national Trustee Board, the Board of Directors for the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund, co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation, and lends his time and talents to music & technology education efforts such as the Grammy In The Schools Program. Cohen served two terms as the Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas.
Mitch Glazier
Senior Executive Vice President
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
Mitch Glazier is Senior Executive Vice President, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). RIAA is the music trade association whose member companies are responsible for creating, manufacturing, or distributing approximately 85 percent of all legitimate music sold in the United States. He serves as the principal officer under the Chairman and CEO, Cary Sherman. In that role, Glazier guides the industry’s strategic policy initiatives and helps coordinate the activities of the association.
In his more than 10-year tenure at the RIAA, Glazier has helped manage a variety of initiatives that have played a vital role in the music industry’s transition to the digital age. This includes, for example, the 2008 PRO-IP Act which established the country’s first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator in the Executive Office of the President and the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 that provided colleges and universities with meaningful tools to reduce the illegal downloading of copyrighted works on college campuses.
Glazier has also been instrumental in managing a variety of state initiatives that have helped the legal online marketplace for music begin to prosper, including the enactment of laws in several states that ensure copyright protections extend to digital storage devices and subscription services. He has spearheaded the promotion and expansion of artist and industry programs such as updating the RIAA’s popular Gold & Platinum Program to reflect legal download and mobile sales and RIAA’s sponsorship of a weekly “Monday Open Mic” night at Nashville’s iconic Bluebird Café to showcase emerging artists and songwriters.
Before joining RIAA, Glazier served as Chief Counsel for intellectual property to the influential Judiciary Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he helped draft and steer into law a series of copyright reforms including the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, and the 1997 No Electronic Theft Act, among other key intellectual property laws.
A native of Illinois, Glazier served as law clerk to the Honorable Judge Wayne R. Andersen, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and practiced law at the Chicago firm Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg as an associate in commercial litigation. He graduated from Northwestern University and Vanderbilt Law School. Glazier serves on the boards of Musicians on Call, the American Association of People with Disabilities, and the Internet Education Foundation.
Julie Samuels is a Staff Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she focuses on intellectual property issues. Before joining EFF, Julie litigated music, IP and general entertainment cases in Chicago and Nashville at Loeb & Loeb and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Julie spent time as a legislative assistant at the Media Coalition in New York and as an assistant editor at the National Journal Group in D.C. She was also an intern at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
Rich Bengloff is the President of the American Association of Independent Music ("A2IM"), a non-profit organization representing a broad coalition of independent music labels. Rich also serves as a board member of the SoundExchange. Rich has spent much of his career in the music and entertainment industry, during the past 20 years having worked at both music labels and music distributors at both independent (RED, Combat/Relativity/In Effect) and major music companies (Sony Music and Warner Music) as well as WNYC Radio, serving as a senior level operations and financial executive. Rich has been published in Billboard, FMQB, NY Times, Hypebot, Huffington Post, Daily Tech, and is often called on to speak at events around the world including CMJ, Digital Music Forum East, Midem, SXSW and the inaugural International Creative Industries Summit in Shanghai, China in 2009. Rich has an MBA from Columbia University and is an adjunct professor of Communications and Media Management at the Fordham University Graduate School of Business and Hunter College of the City of New York
Ernesto Falcon has been the Director of Government Affairs for Public Knowledge since 2010. His work involves informing Members of Congress and Congressional staff on Capitol Hill of the impacts policies involving copyright law and telecommunications law will have on the public interest. During his time at Public Knowledge, he has been involved in successful efforts to protect the Federal Communications Commission Open Internet rules, to defeat the AT&T and T-Mobile merger, and to stop Congress from passing the PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Act. Ernesto came to PK from the office of Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), where he worked for three years as the senior legislative assistant dealing with issues related to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. Ernesto previously worked for Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) for three years as a technology manager and legislative assistant.
Thursday, March 15
