Sponsored by The George Washington University Law School & Columbia Law School

Authors and Contributors

This site was developed with support from Columbia Law School and UCLA Law School. Columbia University’s Center for New Media Teaching and Learning provided development of the technical platform, display features and functionality of the site as it existed between 2002 and 2007.

 

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Currently


Charles Cronin, Project Director

Charles Cronin, Project Director

B.A. Oberlin; J.D. American Univ.; M.A., Ph.D. Stanford Univ.; M.A. Information Systems, U.C. Berkeley. Charles is a musician and lawyer in Los Angeles. He established this project while a graduate student at Berkeley in 1997 and continues to oversee the project’s increasingly distributed authorship. He is a Visiting Scholar at GWU Law School, and an Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University of the Claremont Colleges. cpdcronin@law.gwu.edu

Arjumand Syed

Arjumand Syed

Arjumand is an Attorney from India with seven years of experience in both litigation and corporate matters, as well as intellectual property. She is pursuing her Master of Law in Intellectual Property at George Washington University.

At GWU she is the L.L.M. Representative at the Student Intellectual Property Law Association and a member of the Art Law and Entertainment Society.

Arjumand is also a singer, having participated in the London College of Music Examinations and Aspire Program at Berklee College of Music.

Jessie DeJesus

Jessie is a retired Army musician and is currently in her second year at George Washington University Law School. She has a Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance from University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from Louisiana State University, and Doctor of Music in Brass Pedagogy and Literature from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Jessie is also on the executive board of the Veteran Law Students Association. She is a contributor to the Veterans Law Journal and has practiced at the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.  

Katherine Maskell Leo

Katherine Maskell Leo

Dr. Katherine (Maskell) Leo (Ph.D., 2016, Musicology, The Ohio State University; J.D., 2015, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law) is an Assistant Professor of Music at Millikin University, where she teaches a variety of traditional, hybrid, and travel courses in music history and ethnomusicology. Dr. Leo’s research investigates the intersection of American music and legal histories, with emphases on matters of authorship, musical expert testimony, and forensic similarity analysis in federal copyright litigation. She has recently published in Music and Politics and the Journal of Music History Pedagogy.

Danielle Manahan

Danielle Manahan

Danielle is a third-year law student at the George Washington University Law School. She previously attended Rice University in Houston, TX, where she got her B.A. in psychology and philosophy. She is pursuing a career in entertainment and intellectual property law and currently serves as Executive Managing Editor for the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal. Danielle is passionate about singing and acting, and spends her spare time studying vocal technique, watching films, and perfecting her Australian accent.

Jonathan Huber

Jonathan Huber

Jonathan graduated from Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (Germany) with an MA in Media and Music Management. He is an amateur musician who has worked with music publishers, and with GEMA, the German performing rights organization. These experiences generated his interest in music copyright issues. In his thesis he researched and systematized music music copyright infringement cases since 1966, which were litigated in German courts. The results of his research provide an overview of how German courts deal with copyright infringement disputes involving musical works. The case materials he gathered and analyzed have been incorporated into the MCIR.

Shuyu Wang

Shuyu Wang

Shuyu is a third-year law student at the George Washington University Law School. She comes from China with a journalism and media background. During law school, she devotes her extracurricular time assisting with intellectual property law practice at non-profits and a law firm, which provides her with much experience in music copyright policy and data privacy issues. Currently, she serves as the President of Art Law & Entertainment Society at GW Law and the Production Editor of the Federal Communications Law Journal. In her spare time, she enjoys playing video games and practicing guitar.

Awani Kelkar

Awani Kelkar

LL.M.: The George Washington University Law School; LL.B.: I.L.S Law College, India.
Awani is Assistant Manager, Legal, at Techwave in Houston.

Chien-Chih Lu

Chien-Chih Lu

 

Chien-Chih is an assistant professor at National Chengchi University College of Communication with J.S.D. degree from UC Berkeley Law. He served as a chair of Karuk-Berkeley Indigenous Law Collaborative and received the Certificates of International and Comparative Law, Public Interest and Social Justice, and the fellowship of Startup@ Berkeley Law. Currently, he is a council member of Taiwan Cultural Law Association and editorial board member of Journal of Audio-visual Media and Technologies. His research focuses on topics of entertainment law, media governance and digital entrepreneurship, advertising and branding law and artistic freedom.

 

 

Niall Fordyce

Niall Andrew Fordyce is an attorney and professional musician in Los Angeles. For over a decade, he has handled a full range of cases and transactional matters, and increasingly now also consults in music copyright litigation.

After relocating from England to California, he received a BA in Music from U.C. Berkeley, and Masters of Music from San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied classical guitar.

Before earning a JD at Southwestern Law School, Niall worked as a music analyst for Savage Beast Technologies, where he taught music analysis to junior analysts and developed tools for analyzing various musical genres.

 Leonie Schwannecke 

Leonie is in her final year of studying law at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany. She recently obtained her LL.B and is now preparing for the German state examination. Having spent a year studying law at the University of Nottingham, UK, as well as the fall term 2019 at Stanford Law School, she developed a strong interest in the comparative study of different legal systems as well as international private law. In her spare time, Leonie enjoys playing the violin and the piano, which sparked her motivation to look into music copyright infringement cases

Some time ago...


Chris Moen

Chris graduated Phi Beta Kappa with BA in Political Science and Global Studies from UCLA in 2007. He completed his JD at UCLA Law School,and then studied computer science at Stanford and USC. He works as a software designer and developer. ​

Aaron Prado

Aaron graduated from Columbia as a Philosophy major. ​

Mojdeh Navid

Mojdeh Navid

Mojdeh graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Order of the Laurel & the Palm, with BAs in Philosophy and Communication from the University of Southern California. She earned a JD at UCLA Law School, and is Associate Director, Business & Legal Affairs at Fox Cable Networks.

Ethan Barr

Ethan Barr

University of Delaware, 2012 (B.A., Foreign Languages & Literature)

Boston University, 2015 (Ed.M. Education Leadership & Policy)

Ethan earned his JD at GW Law School and is an IP associated with Lutzker & Lutzker in Washington, D.C. He has contributed as a staff editor of the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal and served as a 2019 Summer Associate at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Before law school, Ethan worked in K-12 public education for five years, serving as both an instructor and an operations manager. He is also an avid musician, singing in GW Law’s campus a cappella group and performing guitar in one of the school’s rock bands. 

Andre Redwood

Andre Redwood

Andre recently completed his Ph.D. in musicology at Yale University. He holds an M.A. and M.Phil. from Yale, and a B.M. with High Distinction from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. He is Assistant Professor of Music at SUNY, Albany. 

Carl Schoonover

Carl Schoonover

Carl graduated from Harvard and obtained a Ph.D. in neurosciences at Columbia where he is a Postdoctoral Fellow. ​

Jerin Kurian

Jerin graduated from Columbia where he was a Computer Science student. ​

Bradley Ryba

Bradley Ryba

Bradley is an attorney licensed to practice in Illinois.  He received his J.D. degree from the John Marshall Law School in 2015. 

Paul Sipio

Paul Sipio

Paul received his JD and MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and graduated from Northeastern University, where he received his BS in Music while taking Master of Music courses in Composition and Jazz Studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is a Principal at Apollo Global Management in New York.

Matthew Urbanek

Matthew graduated from Columbia as a Music major. He is a researcher at NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress.

Angela Vicari

Angela received her undergraduate degree from New York University in 2001, and a JD from Columbia Law School in 2004.  She is a partner at Kaye Scholer in New York. 

Yelena Grinberg

Yelena Grinberg

Yelena graduated Phi Beta Kappa with BA in English from Barnard College in 2003 and with MM in Piano Performance from Juilliard in 2004. She recently completed her doctoral degree at Juilliard.

In Gratitude


With greater success than Blanche DuBois, we “have always depended on the kindness of strangers” to obtain documents for this website from public archives, music retailers, law firms, and research library collections. We thank particularly the following individuals and organizations whom we would like to presume are now friends given their disinterested assistance with this project:

Aspen Publishing/American Association of Law Libraries Research Grant Program

Bettendorf, Iowa Public Library

William Bolcom of the University of Michigan Music Department

Jay Bowen of Bowen Riley Warnock & Jacobson

Buffalo & Erie County Public Library

Robert Cason and Daniel Müllensiefen whose work was sponsored by a pump priming award from the Psychology Department of Goldsmiths, University of London

Cazenovia College Library

The Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University

Columbia University Music Department

Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning

Columbia Law Library

Cornell University Libraries

Darien Library

Dartmouth College Library

Davis McGrath LLC

Detroit Public Library, E. Azalia Hackley Collection

Barry E. Downes of Music Research Consultants

Duke University Music Library

Emory University Libraries

Fairbanks North Star Borough

Henry J. Fasthoff, IV, of Stumpf Farrimond in Houston, Texas

Florida Public Library

Greenwich, Connecticut, Public Library

E. Michael Harrington of Belmont University

Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative

Hinshaw Music, Inc.

Jackson, Mississippi District Library

Judith Finell of Judith Finell Music Services

Rob Harwood

Bruce Keller and James Pastore, Jr. of Debevoise & Plimpton

M. William Krasilovsky

Jonathan Zavin of Loeb & Loeb

Luis Londono, Kurosh Nasseri, and Brian Transeau

Francis McCormick, Jr.

Patrick Maines and the Media Institute in Washington, D.C.

Carol Mowbray of Indio High School

Martin Rosenberg and the National Archives

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound

New York University Libraries

Robert Osterberg of Abelman, Frayne & Schwab

Patchogue Medford Library

James Pegolotti of Western Connecticut State University

Penn State University Library

Princeton University Libraries

Charles S. Sims and Michael T. Mervis of Proskauer Rose

Ray Repp of Ferrisburgh, Vermont

Joseph D. Schleimer of Schleimer & Freundlich

Michael Socha of Dickinson Wright

Stanford University Music Library and Archive of Recorded Sound

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Library

UCLA Archive of Popular American Music

UCLA Law Librarians: Nicci Grayson and Lynn McClelland

UCLA Music Library

UCSB Davidson Library

University of Florida Libraries

University of Maine’s Maine Music Box

University of Mississippi, John Davis Williams Library

Rob Walker of the New York Times

Wellesley, Massachusetts Free Library

Youngstown State University Libraries

The George Washington University Law School

2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052

Jacob Burns Law Library

716 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052