Point Break? Parody Through the Lens of Live Theater

Point Break?  Parody Through the Lens of Live Theater

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

In recent years there have been several important cases involving unlicensed stage parodies of films, books and television programs, and disputes between competing productions.  We’ll consider fair use and parody considerations in developing such shows, and also look at potentially protectable elements of the stage parodies.Toby Butterfield is flying in from NYC to tell us how he won a stunning victory in defending the “3C” case, involving a re-contextualized play inspired by “Three’s Company”.Emily Dorezas, who among other accomplishments was a writer and producer of “50 Shades! The Musical”, and is a producer of “Thrones:  The Musical Parody” will also join us. Born from the twisted minds of Baby Wants Candy, one of the most exhilarating comedy improv ensembles in the world, “Thrones! The Musical Parody” completely sold out its entire run in 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, followed up with sold-out performances at London’s Leicester Square Theatre, then proceeded to sell out in Chicago, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and is currently running in Australia. 

Prof. Jay Dougherty will moderate, and additional panelists will be announced. 

SPEAKERS

Jay Dougherty

During law school Jay Dougherty was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, a staff member of the Columbia Law Review and editor of the Columbia Journal of Arts & the Law. His legal career began in the Entertainment Department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, where his work included representation of Broadway composers and authors. His interest in the motion picture area led to positions at the Motion Picture/Television/Music Departments of Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, the legal departments at United Artists Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and the Business Affairs Department of Morgan Creek Productions. After a corporate takeover of MGM, Dougherty moved to the Legal Department of Twentieth Century Fox, where he became senior vice president of production and worldwide acquisition legal affairs. Before joining the Loyola faculty, Dougherty served as assistant general counsel for Turner Broadcasting System, responsible for Turner Pictures. He also taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Law Center for 10 years, and is an Adjunct Professor teaching International Entertainment Law for the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center in Munich. He is also a professional guitarist.

TOBY M.J. BUTTERFIELD

Toby M.J. Butterfield is a partner in Moses & Singer’s Intellectual Property and Litigation groups.
Mr. Butterfield has 20 years of experience litigating and counseling on copyright, trademark, defamation, software and digital media, and commercial matters. His clients include media and entertainment companies, major brand owners, technology companies and designers of luxury goods. His recent work includes successfully representing an “over the top” TV broadcaster in a distribution dispute with numerous Russian broadcasters; defense of a well-known theater production in litigation concerning music royalty payments; representation of a regional on-line pharmacy in cases concerning false advertising, trademark, fraud and RICO claims; defending book publishers in copyright litigations; and obtaining a fair use dismissal of copyright infringement claims against theater producers concerning a parody play. He has successfully defended film producers and distributors, theater producers, technology and software companies, and has obtained injunctions and seizure orders for magazine publishers and a well-known producer of children’s TV programming. He regularly counsels IP owners and performs pre-publication and pre-broadcast review of content for publishers of books, motion pictures, newspapers and magazines.
Mr. Butterfield writes and speaks frequently for bar associations and industry organizations. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, where he has conducted a seminar on Social Media Law and Regulation since 2014. He co-chaired the Entertainment Business Law Seminar at NYU during the annual CMJ Music Festival. He has lectured at AIPLA’s annual national conference and to PLI on copyright fair use, and authored the first chapter of Counseling Content Providers in the Digital Age on defamation for the New York State Bar Association. He has written for the ABA’s Landslide magazine and wrote for Media Law Resource Center and other bar associations and publications regularly on Fair Use, Copyright Termination, the digital Millennium Copyright Act and other hot topics. He has lectured at legal and television industry conferences all over the world and taught Media and Entertainment Law at Cardozo Law School. Mr. Butterfield currently co-chairs MLRC’s committee on Media Copyright and Trademark, and chaired the New York City Bar’s Committee on Entertainment Law, its Committee on State Courts of Superior Jurisdiction, WNYC Radio’s Community Advisory Board, and was Administrator of the New York State Supreme Court Screening Panel for Democratic Party judicial candidates in New York County.
He has appeared on BBC World News, Forbes TV, and been quoted by the New York Times, Forbes, Law360 and many other news and legal publications.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Butterfield was a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC.

Emily Dorezas (Producer) oversees Baby Wants Candy The Completely Improvised Musical in NYC, LA, Chicago and International Touring Companies.  She co-wrote and co-produced  50 Shades! The Musical Parody.  50 Shades! is licensed around the world and has enjoyed several US National Tours as well as runs in Vegas and Off Broadway in NYC. Current producing projects include Shamilton! The Improvised Musical in production since 2016 and Thrones! The Musical Parody in production since 2015. Thrones! has entertained sold-out runs in Los Angeles, Chicago, Vegas  Australia and UK, Thrones! is now set to add  licensing and national touring. Along with live theatrical events, Emily produces on Paramount TV’s Lip Sync Battle.  

Ethan Jacobs is a partner at Holland Law, where he represents clients on a variety of intellectual property matters and business disputes. Mr. Jacobs represented the author of Point Break LIVE!—a parody of the 1991 action film Point Break—in her trial against a producer for breach of contract and copyright infringement. The trial, which resulted in a unanimous verdict and damages award for the playwright, is one of only a few cases where a jury has decided “fair use” under the Copyright Act. Mr. Jacobs has also provided copyright advice to book publishers, software developers, record labels, and individual artists. Full Bio

PRICE

Members: $28
Non-members: $38

Students: $19  |  Must present valid student ID at the door

Lunch served.

Program will satisfy 1.5 CA CLE credits pending approval by the State Bar of California.