The Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts was established to contribute to a broader understanding of the legal aspects of creative works of authorship, including their dissemination and use.
2026 Graduates Receive Intellectual Property Awards
The Kernochan Center congratulates the winners of this year's academic prizes!
The Andrew D. Fried Memorial Prize, established in memory of Andrew D. Fried ’84 is awarded annually for the best student essay on a subject in the field of intellectual property and related law published in the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts during the preceding year. This year, the winning essay was "The Sooner the Better? How to Optimize Bargaining Power When Serving Notice of Copyright Termination," by Rachel Altemose.
The Carroll G. Harper Prize is awarded annually to one or more graduating students who have attained the highest standards of achievement in intellectual property studies and writing. Garrett Emmons and Clara Lacey were this year's prize winners.
The Michael D. Remer Memorial Award is presented annually by the Kernochan Center to a graduating student or students whose activities and academic achievements demonstrate an interest in and aptitude for the fields of arts and copyright law. This year Rachel Altemose and Bowen Dunnan were awarded the prize.
The 29th Annual ELI Writing Contest is Now Open
The Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) Writing Contest is now open. ELI invites law students to identify and research a pressing legal issue facing the music industry today and outline a proposed solution in a 3,000-word essay. A nationwide panel of music law experts judge the papers in a blind process to select one winner and two runners-up. The first place essayist receives a $10,000 scholarship, and two runners-up receive $2,500 scholarships. Winning entries will be published in the ABA Entertainment & Sports Lawyer journal. For more information and contest rules, please visit the ELI Writing Contest site.
Symposium: Origins, Evolution, and Possible Futures of the 1976 Copyright Act
On April 16-17, the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and the Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts held the first of two bicoastal symposia: Origins, Evolution, and Possible Futures of the 1976 Copyright Act, at the University of California, Berkeley Law School. The first symposium examined the origins of the 1976 Act and its key reforms and features. Speakers included Shira Perlmutter, the 14th Register of Copyrights, judges from the Second and Ninth Circuits, and leading copyright scholars, including the Kernochan Center's co-Faculty Directors Professor Jane Ginsburg and Professor Shyam Balganesh. Links to summaries, videos, and transcripts of each session are available at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology's site.
The Kernochan Center will host the second symposium on October 23-24, 2026 and will continue to explore the 1976 Act and how its subsequent reforms have interacted with private and public institutions, as well as challenges posed by new technologies, including AI. Registration will open in the fall.
The Kernochan Center's Annual Horace S. Manges Lecture, "Performers’ Rights: International, UK and US Law," was delivered April 13, 2026, at 6:45 PM, by the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Richard Arnold, Judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
Performers' rights are the Cinderella of intellectual property law, still impoverished and awaiting proper recognition. This seems surprising in a country with an entertainment industry as large and vibrant as that of the USA. This lecture examined the international legal framework concerning performers' rights, outline the extensive UK regime and contrast the lack of provision in current US law.
We hope to make video of the lecture available to the public shortly.
The Kernochan Center's 4th Annual Art Law Symposium, "Censorship in the Visual Arts: Who Controls the Narrative?" focused on the effects of censorship on the arts, in past and present. Speakers included artist and NYU professor Karen Finley; artist, author and professor at the Cooper Union School of Art Coco Fusco; Anne Pasternak, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Museum; Professor Amy Adler of NYU; Michael Famighetti, Editor in Chief of Aperature Magzine; Susan Meiselas, photographer and president of The Magnum Foundation; Renee Romano, Professor of Museum Studies at CUNY, and Lee Rowland, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. For more details, please visit the symposium page.
The Third Annual U.S.-Asia Comparative Copyright Law Symposium: Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law
On December 13 and 14, 2025, the Kernochan Center co-sponsored the third annual U.S.-Asia Comparative Copyright Law Symposium at Waseda University in Tokyo. This symposium brings together scholars, industry leaders, and government representatives from around the world to discuss comparative approaches to the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law.
The first day of the symposium featured three panels, exploring the interaction of deepfakes and intellectual property law, governmental perspectives on AI, and a dialogue between industry stakeholders. Professor Balganesh moderated one panel and Professor Ginsburg presented on another. Kernochan Center faculty, along with other academics, participated in a roundtable on the second day of the conference.
The Visual Arts Infringement Database
On Monday, March 3, 2025, the Kernochan Center launched the Visual Arts Infringement Database, a resource that will illuminate issues and cases in visual arts infringement for students, lawyers, and artists alike. The Visual Arts Infringement Database is made possible by the generosity of Arnold D. Burke '55.