Nick Reynolds had a problem. While the historian was researching a biography of a famous author, he came across a cache of unpublished letters the author sent to a close friend (now deceased). The author is also dead, but his powerful international foundation claims ownership of the contents.
Reynolds wanted to know whether he had the legal right to excerpt the letters in his upcoming book.
Ordinarily, Reynolds would have paid a copyright attorney for a consultation. Instead, he took his questions to the students of the new Arts and Entertainment Advocacy Clinic at George Mason University’s School of Law for a free consultation. The session was supervised by guest attorney Jan Constantine, general counsel of the Author’s Guild in New York.
The meeting, and the several others with different authors held at Mason’s Arlington Campus in February, was followed by an in-depth seminar about the related topics, moderated by the clinic’s director, senior scholar Sandra Aistars.
The clinic, a unit of Mason’s fast-growing Center for Protection of Intellectual Property, is intended to give Mason law students hands-on experience regarding legal and policy skills in the arts.
“I’ve always been involved in the creative arts,” said second-year law student Rebecca Cusey. “This is marrying the love of the arts and the legal side of things. And I enjoy learning by doing.”
In a half-hour, Cusey, who is from Piedmont, Calif., and third-year student Danielle Ely, originally from Knoxville, Tenn., clarified Reynold’s situation. Among other points, Cusey had four factors that courts look for should a case such as this come to trial; Ely wondered how transformative the contents of the letters would be to the whole of the work, since that might have some bearing if it came to court.
Constantine, who kept a watchful eye on the discussion and added the occasional point, said that Reynolds would have paid $500 for a 20-minute meeting at a law firm in New York.
“He got a lot of free legal advice,” she said. “And it was good advice.”
“They confirmed my suspicions,” a grateful Reynolds said afterward.
Mason’s arts advocacy clinic’s next public event is an April 18 symposium cohosted by the Copyright Office and Mason Law. Artists, trade associations industry representatives and academics from around the country will address the “moral rights of creators.” The outcome will provide initial research for a study by the Copyright Office at the request of the House Judiciary Committee. Mason’s GMUSL Journal of International and Commercial Law will publish the proceedings.