Christophe Dickes, Global Copyright Director at Kantar and Copyright, Commissioner for FIBEP and AMEC, France

To face the big techs such as Google and Facebook, the European parliament has voted a new Copyright Directive in 2019. The same year, the French Parliament was the first country that has transposed this new text in the French law to support the publishers. What was the main discussion about this text at national level regarding data mining and neighbouring rights? What were the publisher’s expectations with this directive? How have the big techs have reacted? What are the perspectives?

Agnieszka Wiercińska-Krużewska, Founding Partner, WKB
Paulina Maślak-Stępnikowska, Attorney-at-law, WKB

The last several months in Poland have been full of discussions and changes in regulations concerning financial aspects of the media market.

In 2020 the so-called VOD tax was introduced and currently the legislative process concerning the extension of the scope of the reprographic fee is underway. In February all private media in Poland held a nationwide protest action related to the government’s plans to introduce an advertising tax.

In this presentation we will summarize the current legal status and planned changes in the financial aspects of creative and media business in Poland, taking into account European and global trends, as well as the impact of such regulations on the independence of the media.

Presentation

Jeanne Hamburg, Norris McLaughlin, US
Robert Lands, Howard Kennedy, UK

Even as the EU has proposed that social media platforms filter content to address the persistent problem of IP infringement, Congress and US courts have consistently placed the burden of enforcement of IP rights on their owners. In the US internet Service Providers including social media companies are not liable for copyright and trademark infringements on their platforms absent notification by the IP owner. Learn about the scope of liability in the US and the UK for infringement of copyright and trademark rights in your content and arising from its merchandising.

Presentation

Karyn Harty, McCann FitzGerald, Ireland
Lesley Caplin, McCann FitzGerald, Ireland

There has been a marked increase in international defamation claims in Ireland, which plaintiffs view as a favourable jurisdiction to recover damages for on-line content. Learn about the factors driving this trend, the Irish courts’ approach to determining jurisdiction and considerations for international publishers who may find themselves subject to a claim in Ireland.

Panel

Gill Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Service, Guardian Media Group,
Adam Cannon, Director of Legal, The Sun
Dominic C Harrison, Head Lawyer, Programme Compliance, Channel 4
David Attfield, Head of Programme Legal Advice, the BBC,
Legal issues of reputation protection in media, including digital media

Presentation

TMT Law Practice – India
Abhishek Malhotra, Managing Partner
Sapna Chaurasia, Partner
Meghana Chandorkar, Partner
Anushree Yewale, Principal Associate

A summary of the M&E industry in India. The Media & Entertainment business in India has witnessed an interesting last one year, with developments in the space of privacy and personality rights. The recently notified Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Code of Ethics governing the news publishers and aggregators as well as OTT platforms has witnessed a furore across industries and is likely to continue to be a hotbed of litigation. We will try and break it down in applicability and also discuss the issues surrounding the same.

Presentation

Mark Hill, Partner Charles Russell Speechlys, Middle East

As the uncertainty of commercial life continues, we will take a look at: the current environment and some of the key recent changes we have seen in the region; opportunities and focuses for Media and Entertainment in the Middle East in the next 3-5 years; the world of Sponsorship and the Middle East’s greater sophistication; a little crystal ball gazing in the area of what M&A activity we can expect – the time is good now to start looking at possible acquisitions of quality brands who have suffered during the recent pandemic and are therefore affordable and available; challenges to the Media and Entertainment sectors from required regulatory requirements; in essence a look at some of the important things to be aware of for anyone operating in the Middle East in Media and Entertainment.

Punuka Attorneys

Isioma Idigbe, Head of the Media & Entertainment Practice Group
Louis Luwanga, Head of Entertainment, Media & Sports at the Ugandan law firm Katende, Ssempebwa & Company Advocates
Baba Agba, Managing Director BCI Studios Limited

Presentation

Julia Sycheva, Director of Legal and Business Affairs, ViacomCBS
Igor Mukhin, Senior Compliance Editor for Comedy & Entertainment, ViacomCBS

All media companies in the world pretend to produce international content for worldwide distribution. However legal, regulatory and cultural differences significantly affect this process, making it harder to combine values for various territories. We will focus on Russian and CIS landscape and describe practical cases.

– Introduction of cultural and legal regulations in the Russian market
– Short overview of children protection law
– Practical cases of distribution of international content in Russia and CIS
– Legal consequences of different ethical and cultural approaches
– Operation with sensitive and defamatory content

Q&A

Danny De Warren, Film and TV Producer, Wellspring Studios/ Europe
Ivan Kelava, Senior Business Affairs Manager, Hanway Films

Followed by Closing Remarks