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Karyn A. Temple is the Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel for the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and one of the world's leading authorities on copyright and anti-piracy. Karyn oversees the MPA's legal affairs and content protection efforts worldwide. Before joining the MPA, Karyn served more than eight years in the U.S. Copyright Office as the Register of Copyrights, where she led the 400-person agency and its eight divisions. Karyn previously served as Vice President of Litigation and Legal Affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), spent several years as a litigation associate at the law firm, Williams & Connolly LLP, and received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where she was Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review, and served as Chairperson of the Columbia Black Law Students' Association. Karyn recently joined the Board of the Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice and has served in several prominent volunteer positions in the copyright community. Presented by the New York City Bar Copyright and Literary Property Committee and hosted by members Theodora Fleurant and Jose Landivar, Ms. Temple reflects on her storied career and the MPA's ongoing battle against online piracy. Access a transcript of this episode here: https://bit.ly/4b4z4GO Selected Links from the Episode: Motion Picture Association: https://www.motionpictures.org/ Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment: https://www.alliance4creativity.com/ Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iipsj/ New York City Bar Copyright & Literary Property Committee: https://www.nycbar.org/committees/copyright-literary-property-committee/
Question: Who fights to recognize the power of our stories, reward creators, and allows the industry to produce, distribute, and protect creative content that audiences love? Answer: The Motion Picture Association; the leading advocate of the film, television, and streaming industry around the world. Their members are Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Brothers. "Free speech empowers creators to entertain and inform, to challenge and inspire. Copyright ensures creators can benefit from their works and protects against piracy. Combined, these fundamental rights enable creators to thrive and bring great stories to global audiences. Combined, these fundamental rights enable creators to thrive and bring great stories to global audiences.”[1] Meet Karyn A. Temple, Motion Picture Association Senior Executive Vice President, and Global Counsel. One of the world's leading authorities on copyright, Ms. Temple will oversee all of the Association's legal affairs and content protection efforts around the world. Listen below and learn things about Karyn's professional journey. [1] https://www.motionpictures.org/what-we-do/
Welcome to Heels of Justice; these are the stories of women lawyers who are trailblazers in their field and paved the way for the rest of us. Karyn A. Temple, Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel for the Motion Picture Association joins the Heels of Justice to share her steadfast journey into copyright law. Tune in for a fascinating discussion about the journey in and out of governmental and private law practice as well as the evolution of work conditions for a woman of color in a largely white-male-dominated profession. Key Takeaways [:47] Katherine welcomes Karyn A. Temple and asks her to share the story of how she found her way into law school as well as how she found out the practice of law was her calling. [4:00] Karyn shares how enjoyable law school was for her in both the differences and similarities to her expectations as well as seeing a path to copyright law. [8:35] From clerking on the Sixth Circuit to working at the Department of Justice (for a short time, alongside her mother!) and joining Williams & Connolly, Karyn shares her formidable private and government experience. [14:53] Karyn speaks to her first in-house role at the Recording Industry Association, and how her proactive interest in entertainment cases at Williams & Connolly helped her in that role. She shares one particular case she had to tackle there. [18:59] Looping back into the DoJ! Karyn shares what brought her back on the policy side — hint, it was a specific administration. She shares her roles and responsibilities as the Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General of the United-States. [21:55] Joining the Copyright Office was a full-circle experience and Karyn takes a moment to explain how copyright operates and how it affects so many aspects of our lives. [26:21] Karyn shares two wonderful experiences where she was asked to go to Beijing and Marrakesh and negotiate treaties on the behalf of the United-States and explains what a copyright treaty is. [28:47] So beyond being very cool, what does the title of United States Register of Copyrights, Karyn breaks down what the position entails and the teams that rely on its leadership. [30:27] Reaching the pinnacle of copyright law was a huge pride point for someone as steadfastly focused on copyright law for her entire career! Karyn shares her most memorable achievement in the role. [31:19] General Counsel of the Motion Picture Association is Karyn’s current role; she touches on what it is they do — you know those ratings? It’s them! [30:32] Being a black woman in a notoriously undiverse profession, Karyn shares her daily experience of discrimination in its various forms, as well as her hope for the future and the conversation we need to have as a society. She also touches on how the current trend to speak openly about these issues is affecting the way she chooses to lead. [34:39] Failure is part of how we learn; Karyn shares her perspective on what that means for lawyers and how you can move forward from your mistakes. She shares a moment when she advocated for herself in her career. [49:31] Katherine thanks Karyn A. Temple for all of her insight and openness to share her experience and signs off until next time. That’s it for this episode of Heels of Justice; if you like the stories we’re telling, please visit our website. You can join our mailing list, learn more about our guests, and see what we have planned for the future. You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Disclaimer: The opinions you have heard are ours or our guests’ alone. They’re not the opinions of our employers, or our clients, or our bosses, and not our husbands, kids, or pets, or anyone else’s. More about the Heels of Justice hosts Sarita Venkat, and Katherine Minarik Heels of Justice on the Web Heels of Justice on Twitter Heels of Justice on Instagram Heels of Justice on Facebook Sarita Venkat on LinkedIn Katherine Minarik on LinkedIn Katherine Minarik on Twitter Katherine Minarik at cleverbridge More about our guest Karyn A. Temple is Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel for the Motion Picture Association. One of the world’s leading authorities on copyright, Ms. Temple will oversee all of the Association’s legal affairs and content protection efforts around the world. Prior to joining the Motion Picture Association, Ms. Temple served more than eight years in the U.S. Copyright Office, most recently as the Register of Copyrights, where she led the 400-person agency and its eight divisions representing law, policy, international affairs, financial operations, registration practice, public records, and outreach and education. In this role, she testified multiple times before both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and oversaw the Office’s policy and legal activities among others. Find out more about Karyn A. Temple at the Motion Picture Association Mentioned in this episode Williams & Connolly LLP Recording Industry Association U.S. Copyright Office Personal stories (edited) “The fact that we're all copyright owners and copyright creators and generators is something that we often don't realize, but every time we take a picture, that’s a copyright that we own. Every time we decide to write a poem or create a new song to sing to our children to go to sleep, that’s another copyright. Often in the press, you see a lot just about big companies being copyright owners, but the fact that is that all of us as individuals are also creators in almost every aspect of our lives and have ownership of our work and rights under copyright law to be able to decide how that work should be distributed. We can also make money off that work if we so choose and I think it’s great to emphasize: all of us are creators in our own right.” “I’m very proud that we got rid of our backlog of registration claims. We get hundreds of thousands of individual claims every year, and we have limited resources. We were able to secure some additional funds to hire more staff and work really closely with the head of the registration program — and all of the wonderful staff that we have in registration on developing ideas — to try to address our backlog so we can more quickly get those registration certificates out to people.”
Big changes are on the horizon for copyright law. We discuss the recent congressional hearing with Karyn A. Temple, the first black Register of Copyrights, which covered everything from black box money royalties to the creation of the Mechanical Licensing Collective. We also talk about another Spotify copyright case that is linked to these recent copyright law changes. Plus stick around for The Breakdown of the Music Moderation Act of 2018, and updates on the Marvin Gaye songwriter’s case against Ed Sheeran, and more on the Roc Nation vs. Iconix saga. Head to www.poplawpodcast.com for more Desiree and Tyrone Follow us on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram --> @poplawpodcast Subscribe to the monthly POPLAW Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/b4cf3daf5f30/poplawnewsletter-278159 Patreon sign-up --> https://www.patreon.com/poplawpodcast Our blog POPBLOG is finally here! Check out the first few posts: https://www.poplawpodcast.com/popblog Available on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | PocketCasts | iHeartRadio | Overcast And don't forget to rate/comment wherever you're listening!