United for Artists’ Rights: Amicus Briefs Filed in Vetter v. Resnik Support Global Copyright Termination for Songwriters and Authors: Brief by Music Artists Coalition, Black Music Action Coalition, Artists Rights Alliance, Songwriters Of North America, and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation Of Television And Radio Artists

In Vetter v. Resnik, songwriter Cyril Vetter won his trial case in Baton Rouge allowing him to recover worldwide rights in his song “Double Shot of My Baby’s Love” after serving his 35 year termination notice on his former publisher, Resnik Music Group. The publisher appealed. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case and currently is weighing whether U.S. copyright termination rights include “foreign” territories—a question that strikes at the heart of artists’ ability to reclaim their work worldwide (whatever “foreign” means).

Cyril’s attorney Tim Kappel explains the case if you need an explainer:

An astonishing number of friend of the court briefs were filed by many songwriter groups. We’re going to post them all and today’s brief is by Music Artists Coalition, Black Music Action Coalition, Artists Rights Alliance, Songwriters Of North America, And Screen Actors Guild-American Federation Of Television And Radio Artists–that’s right, the SAG-AFTRA union is with us.

We believe the answer must be yes. Congress gave creators and their heirs the right a “second bite at the apple” to regain control of their work after decades, and that promise means little if global rights are excluded. The outcome of this case could either reaffirm that promise—or open the door for multinational publishers to sidestep it entirely.

That’s why we’re sharing friend of the court briefs from across the creative communities. Each one brings a different perspective—but all defend the principle that artists deserve a real, global right to take back what’s theirs, because as Chris said, Congress did not give authors a second bite at half the apple.

Read the latest amicus brief below, watch this space for more.

Conversation with @KCEsq and @MusicTechPolicy on a Songwriter Union, Better Royalties and Health Care for Songwriters

Forming a songwriter union is a hot topic these days, thank you Chappell Roan! Artist Rights Institute put a casual poll in the field to get a sense of what people are thinking about this issue. If you haven’t taken that poll yet, please join us on Survey Monkey here (all results are anonymized) we would love to get your feedback. We will post the results on Trichordist.

Reaction to the poll led to an Artist Rights Institute podcast with Chris Castle and Kevin Casini who both fans of the Trichordist audience, so naturally they wanted to launch the podcast here. There are a number of resources mentioned in the podcast that we have linked to below. Please leave comments if you have questions!

Check out the video with Kevin and Chris, and while you’re on the Artist Rights Institute’s cool new YouTube channel subscribe and bookmark the Artist Rights Symposium videos!

Important resources:

Union Organizing and Union Health Care Insurance Plans

National Labor Relations Board

AFL-CIO Organizing Institute

American Federation of Musicians

SAG-AFTRA

Health Care:

Health Alliance for Austin Musician http://www.myhaam.org Musician Services (512) 541-4226 (opt 2).

Music Health Alliance https://www.musichealthalliance.com Request assistance

American Association of Independent Music Benefits Store

Mental Health

SIMS Foundation (Austin) 512-494-1007

Industry-wide Agreements

See discussion of Canada’s Mechanical License Agreement https://musictechpolicy.com/2012/01/1…

Controlled Compositions

Copyright Office Circular on Work For Hire Explainer

Controlled Compositions Part 1 https://musictechpolicy.com/2010/03/2… and Controlled Compositions and Frozen Mechanicals https://musictechpolicy.com/2020/10/1…

We will be coming back to this topic soon. Feel free to leave comments if you have questions or want us to focus on any particular point.

Copyright 2025 Artist Rights Institute. All Rights Reserved. This video or any transcript may not be used for text or data mining or for the purpose of training artificial intelligence models or systems.

Updates for Nov. 20 @ArtistRights Symposium at @AmericanU @KogodBiz in Washington DC

We are announcing the time schedule and speakers for the 4th annual Artist Rights Symposium on November 20. The symposium is supported by the Artist Rights Institute and was founded by Dr. David C. Lowery, Lecturer at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business.

This year the symposium is hosted in Washington, DC, by American University’s Kogod School of Business at American’s Constitution Hall, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016.  We are also pleased to have a Kogod student presentation on speculative ticketing as part of the speaker lineup.

Admission is free, but please reserve a spot with Eventbrite, seating is limited!

The symposium starts at 8:30 am and ends with a reception at 4:30pm. The symposium will be recorded as an audiovisual presentation for distribution at a later date, but will not be live-streamed. If you attend, understand that you may be filmed in any audience shots, questions from the floor or still images. The symposium social media hashtag is #ArtistRightsKogod.

Schedule

8:30 — Doors open, networking coffee.

9:00-9:10 — Welcome remarks by David Marchick, Dean, Kogod School of Business

9:10-9:15 — Welcome remarks by Christian L. Castle, Esq., Director, Artist Rights Institute

9:15-10:15 — THE TROUBLE WITH TICKETS:  The Challenges of Ticket Resellers and Legislative Solutions:

Kevin Erickson, Director, Future of Music Coalition, Washington DC
Dr. David C. Lowery, Co-founder of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, University of Georgia
  Terry College of Business, Athens, Georgia
Stephen Parker, Executive Director, National Independent Venue Association, Washington DC
Mala Sharma, President, Georgia Music Partners, Atlanta, Georgia

Moderator:  Christian L. Castle, Esq., Director, Artist Rights Institute, Austin, Texas

10:15-10:30: NIVA Speculative Ticketing Project Presentation by Kogod students

10:30-10:45: Coffee break

10:45-11:00: OVERVIEW OF CURRENT ISSUES IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LITIGATION: Kevin Madigan, Vice President, Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel, Copyright Alliance

11:00-12 pm: SHOW ME THE CREATOR – Transparency Requirements for AI Technology:

Danielle Coffey, President & CEO, News Media Alliance, Arlington, Virginia
Dahvi Cohen, Legislative Assistant, U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff, Washington, DC
Ken Doroshow, Chief Legal Officer, Recording Industry Association of America, Washington DC 

Moderator: Linda Bloss-Baum, Director of the Kogod School of Business’s Business & Entertainment Program

12:00-12:30: Lunch break

12:30-1:30: Keynote: Graham Davies, President and CEO of the Digital Media Association, Washington DC.

1:30-1:45: Coffee break

1:45-2:45: CHICKEN AND EGG SANDWICH:  Bad Song Metadata, Unmatched Funds, KYC and What You Can Do About It

Richard James Burgess, MBE, President & CEO, American Association of Independent Music, New York
Helienne Lindvall, President, European Composer & Songwriter Alliance, London, England
Abby North, President, North Music Group, Los Angeles
Anjula Singh, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, SoundExchange, Washington DC

Moderator:  Christian L. Castle, Esq, Director, Artist Rights Institute, Austin, Texas

2:45-3:15: Reconvene across street to International Service Founders Room for concluding speakers and reception

3:15-3:30: OVERVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LEGISLATION: George York, Senior Vice President International Policy from RIAA.

3:30-4:30: NAME, IMAGE AND LIKENESS RIGHTS IN THE AGE OF AI:  Current initiatives to protect creator rights and attribution

Jeffrey Bennett, General Counsel, SAG-AFTRA, Washington, DC
Jen Jacobsen, Executive Director, Artist Rights Alliance, Washington DC
Jalyce E. Mangum, Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Copyright Office, Washington DC

Moderator
John Simson, Program Director Emeritus, Business & Entertainment, Kogod School of Business, American University

4:30-5:30: Concluding remarks by Linda Bloss-Baum, Director of the Kogod School of Business’s Business & Entertainment Program and reception.

NAME, IMAGE AND LIKENESS RIGHTS: New Speaker Update for Nov. 20 @ArtistRights Symposium at @AmericanU @KogodBiz in Washington DC

We are announcing more topics and new speakers for the 4th annual Artist Rights Symposium on November 20, this year hosted in Washington, DC, by American University’s Kogod School of Business at American’s Constitution Hall, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016.  The symposium is also supported by the Artist Rights Institute and was founded by Dr. David Lowery, Lecturer at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business.

We’re pleased to add an overview of artificial intelligence litigation in the US by Kevin Madigan, Vice President, Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel from the Copyright Alliance and an overview of international artificial intelligence-related legislation by George York, Senior Vice President International Policy from RIAA. We’re also announcing our fourth panel and speaker line up:

NAME, IMAGE AND LIKENESS RIGHTS IN THE AGE OF AICurrent initiatives to protect creator rights and attribution

Jeffrey Bennett, General Counsel, SAG-AFTRA, Washington, DC
Jen Jacobson, Executive Director, Artist Rights Alliance, Washington DC
Jalyce E. Mangum, Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Copyright Office, Washington DC

Moderator
: John Simson, Program Director Emeritus, Business & Entertainment, Kogod School of Business, American University

Panels will begin at 8:30 am and end by 5 pm, with lunch and refreshments. More details to follow. Contact the Artist Rights Institute for any questions.

Admission is free, but please reserve a spot with Eventbrite, seating is limited! (Eventbrite works best with Firefox)

Previously confirmed panelists are:

Keynote: Graham Davies, President and CEO of the Digital Media Association, Washington DC.  Graham will speak around lunchtime.

CHICKEN AND EGG SANDWICH:  Bad Song Metadata, Unmatched Funds, KYC and What You Can Do About It

Richard James Burgess, MBE, President & CEO, American Association of Independent Music, New York
Helienne Lindvall, President, European Composer & Songwriter Alliance, London, England
Abby North, President, North Music Group, Los Angeles
Anjula Singh, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, SoundExchange, Washington DC

Moderator:  Christian L. Castle, Esq, Director, Artist Rights Institute, Austin, Texas

SHOW ME THE CREATOR – Transparency Requirements for AI Technology:

Danielle Coffey, President & CEO, News Media Alliance, Arlington, Virginia
Dahvi Cohen, Legislative Assistant, U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff, Washington, DC
Ken Doroshow, Chief Legal Officer, Recording Industry Association of America, Washington DC 

Moderator: Linda Bloss-Baum, Director of the Kogod School of Business’s Business & Entertainment Program

THE TROUBLE WITH TICKETS:  The Economics and Challenges of Ticket Resellers and Legislative Solutions:

Kevin Erickson, Director, Future of Music Coalition, Washington DC
Dr. David C. Lowery, Co-founder of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, University of Georgia
  Terry College of Business, Athens, Georgia
Stephen Parker, Executive Director, National Independent Venue Association, Washington DC
Mala Sharma, President, Georgia Music Partners, Atlanta, Georgia

Moderator:  Christian L. Castle, Esq., Director, Artist Rights Institute, Austin, Texas