WILLIAM MAXWELL HART
Austin, TX.
William (“Bill”) Hart is a well-known New York City copyright lawyer (now retired) with deep, long-standing experience as both a litigator and transactional lawyer in complex copyright matters across a range of industries: music publishing, literary works, fine art, architecture and technology, among others. Bill has considerable experience in multi-national copyright disputes and transactions.
Many of his cases are considered landmarks in the law and he has been lead copyright counsel in the acquisition, sale and valuation of some of the most significant music catalogs in the world. Bill retired from lawyering in November 2014, after more than 33 years of very active practice.
Bill now consults in the music and technology fields. He has over four decades of experience in the audio recording arts and writes extensively on modern music history and recordings. A number of his essays are in the National Recording Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress and Bill maintains a website devoted to older recordings and the “stories” behind them.
Bill is also an adjunct professor at UT Law School in Austin, Texas where he teaches various copyright related courses and is developing a curriculum for “IP Drafting” that may eventually be made available as a learning tool for practitioners and others. He is a sought-after speaker and has appeared at many leading symposia at major universities, think tanks and industry consortia here and abroad on topics ranging from the impact of technology on the “content” industries to shortcomings in the laws governing the right of publicity and the complexity of multi-national copyright issues.
Bill and his wife relocated to Austin Texas permanently in 2017 after five years of splitting time between Austin and New York.
CURRENT:
PRINCIPAL, FLYINGREPTILEMEDIAGROUP, now a d/b/a of William M. Hart Consulting, LLC, 2012-
Project development in various creative arts and media: music, books, film and the Internet.
PUBLISHER/EDITOR, THEVINYLPRESS.COM, 2015-
Music history, essays, articles and interviews with a focus on analog recording arts from the 1950s-1970s; several of these essays are in the National Recording Registry maintained by the U.S. Library of Congress.
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS LAW SCHOOL AT AUSTIN, 2012-
Adjunct Professor-Advanced Copyright/Media Rights Workshop; Copyright (Basic Introductory Course); IP Rights Drafting Workshop (Fall 2018, 2019).
PROFESSIONAL
Expert Witness, London: The Beatles Lost Concert, Apr 2012 – Jun 2015
Bill served as an expert on U.S. copyright law in a case in London involving rare concert footage of The Beatles, providing written reports to the court on the copyright status of the film and its relationship to the separate rights in the musical compositions. At trial, Bill was called to testify on a subset of issues concerning the “fair use” doctrine under U.S. law.
PROSKAUER- 1999-2012, EQUITY PARTNER; CO-CHAIR- COPYRIGHT PRACTICE; CONSULTANT TO FIRM ON COPYRIGHT MATTERS, 2012-14
Litigation and transactional practice devoted to copyright with emphasis on content protection and acquisition and sale of entertainment catalogs, traditional literary property and technology licensing. Notable cases include: Premier League v. YouTube/Google; Universal City Studios v. Reimerdes (2d Cir.); Silvers v. Sony (9th Cir., en banc) Video Pipeline v Buena Vista Home Ent. (amicus, 3d Cir.); A & M Records, et al v. Napster (9th Cir.) Transactional: Estate of Otis Blackwell (wrote top Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis songs); Elvis (sale of catalog); represented bidders of Warner Bros. Music, Arc (Chess Records) Music.
PAUL, HASTINGS, JANOFSKY & WALKER- 1991-99, EQUITY PARTNER
Notable cases include RTC v. Netcom (bedrock of DMCA ‘takedown provisions’) as well as numerous formative cases in the US and Europe governing ISP liability for copyright infringement. Catalog representation included acquisition and consolidation of worldwide Bob Marley rights, Jimmy Webb, Barrett Strong, Marvin Gaye and Rachmaninoff catalogs.
MILGRIM, THOMAJAN & LEE- 1988-91, EQUITY PARTNER
Notable cases include Cliffs Notes v. Doubleday (2d Cir); Demetriades v. Kaufmann (SDNY) (copyright in architecture). Involved in numerous matters for celebrity recording artists including Madonna, Bob Marley, Run-DMC and many others. Contributor to Milgrim on Trade Secrets (copyright and antitrust chapters); represented Arthur Fellig (‘Weegee’) estate in connection with catalog of famous ‘noir’ photographs.
COWAN, LIEBOWITZ & LATMAN- 1981-88, ASSOCIATE
Contributed to expansion of Lanham Act 43(a) in numerous cases involving character licensing rights (Smurf, Muppets, Cabbage Patch, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears); involved in Reader’s Digest v. Nation (Gerald Ford memoirs case); worked on recording contracts for CBS and RCA Records for Bob Dylan, Hall & Oates and many others. Protégé of the late Alan Latman.
ADMITTED: U.S. District Court, New York, Eastern District
U.S. District Court, New York, Southern District
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL, NEW YORK, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR 2005-2012
Advanced Copyright and Trademark – drawing together copyright, trademark, right of publicity, trade secret and unfair competition principles in a variety of real world litigation and transactional settings, including sales, licensing and other transactions; due diligence of intellectual property rights; transactional and litigation aspects of music, software, text and other forms of ‘content delivery’ in both traditional and developing media.
EDUCATION
Recipient, Burton Fellowship, Columbia University School of Law, 1981
University of London School of Law, Summer 1980 (comparative law studies)
University of Pittsburgh School of Law, J.D. 1981. Law Review. Top 10% of First Year Class. Executive Editor, Journal of Law and Commerce;
Founding Member, Pittsburgh Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Recipient, Local Nathan Burkan Prize.
Carnegie-Mellon University, B.A. in History, 1978.
MEDIATION-RELATED
Certificate of Completion- 40 Hour Basic Mediation Training, Austin DRC (Walter Wright)
Professional Recognition
New York Super Lawyers 2010-2011
Best Lawyers in America 1999-2012
Committees & Professional Associations (Past and Present)
New York City Bar (Committee on Copyright & Literary Property)
United States Trademark Association (Federal Legislation Committee)
United States Copyright Society
Copyright Alliance
NARAS (Grammy Organization)
Audio Engineering Society
Board Directorships
Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts (2014)
RxArt (2006-2012)
Rosie’s Theatre Kids (2010-12)
PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
PLEASE SEE COMPANION BIBLIOGRAPHY (SEPARATE DOCUMENT)
References Available on Request