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Copyright attorney Gary F. Roth, assistant vice president of legal and business affairs for performing rights at Broadcast Music, Inc. since 1997, will speak on “What’s So Important about Copyright, Anyway?” 7 p.m. today in the Kirby Hall of Civil Rights auditorium.
He will give a brief lecture about the issues involved with downloading music from the Internet and then turn to the audience for questions and debates. The free event is sponsored by the Conway, P.T. Farinon, and sorority resident advising staff. Head resident adviser Kelley Anthes ’04 (Hopatcong, N.J.), a double major in government & law and English, has organized Roth’s visit.
“April is Copyright Awareness Month,” says Roth. “Therefore, I am going to talk about what copyright means to the people who make a living from its use, and why it is important for users of copyrighted material to be sensitive to the implications of its being disregarded. I also will explain why the music industry is so committed to fighting illegal downloading.”
Roth is admitted to the New York, New Jersey, and Supreme Court bars. He is treasurer of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. as well as a member of its FACE initiative. He is the immediate past chair of the Corporate Counsel Section of the New York State Bar Association and a director and vice president of BMI Foundation, Inc. He also is a member of numerous music industry associations.
Before taking his current position, Roth was senior legal counsel in BMI’s legal department from July 1993 through April 1997 after serving as senior attorney in that department since 1986. He joined BMI in 1974 as a staff attorney immediately upon graduation from the College of William & Mary School of Law, where he earned a J.D. degree. He received his B.A. from University of Pennsylvania.
BMI is the world’s largest performing rights organization, representing 250,000 songwriters and music publishers. The company collects license fees on behalf of the American creators it represents, as well as for the thousands of creators from around the world who have chosen BMI for U.S. representation. The fees for the “public performances” of its repertoire of more than 4.5 million works — including radio, broadcast and cable television, and Internet airplay, and live and recorded performances by all other users of music — are then distributed as royalties to its writers and publishers.
Roth’s duties at BMI involve supervising the legal matters of the Performing Rights Department in regard to writers and publishers, including song disputes, estates, banking, divorce, bankruptcy, and tax and judgment issues. He also counsels department personnel on copyright and other legal matters. In addition, he drafts agreements for BMI affiliates and answers copyright questions from the public. Roth extensively lectures to educational and legal groups about BMI and copyright law.
The purpose of Copyright Awareness Month is to help create a greater awareness about copyright in the United States, especially among young people, and the protection of and use of creative works. Copyright Awareness Month provides the members of the Copyright Society and other interested professionals in the copyright fields the opportunity to speak in local schools, universities, associations, and other venues about the importance of copyright to the creative arts.