Wednesday, December 09, 2020
The pandemic will, of course, change the way we practice forever. Our glamor profession has always adopted technology slowly: our practice, for example, was the second in WNY to have a website, and although others caught up it took a couple of years before that became universal. I doubt that there are many firms where the lawyers don't all have computers, but I am sure there are some, and I know more than a few lawyers who have their emails printed out for them.
Because we are all living in a world of screens now we are going to be doing more and more virtual depositions, and we are going to have to adopt better ways to handle them. We are going to have to have rules about recording them, and using those recordings at trial. Handling documents is presently cumbersome and that will have to change. Weirdly, scheduling is going to be both more difficult and simpler. My rule in the past was to always be in the room with my client, and this troubles me because that is certainly not going to be the way it will be done for a long time yet.
One of the things I'd hoped would be different would be a rethinking about how we litigate. Frequently we practice by rote, clicking off boxes, without really considering whether each and every step in the process is necessary to get to the outcome. I am not seeing this happen, and I am disappointed.
Monday, December 07, 2020
Bob Dylan has sold his catalogue. He's been pretty clever about monetizing his work, with the limited edition copyright releases (I'd like to have the George Harrison sessions myself) and the Bootleg Series, which generally come out in between new works. The Bootleg stuff is how I came back to him, and I suspect they keep interest up.
Not only has his work stood the test of time, but most of his songs were written by Dylan alone and have been frequently covered by other artists — with each use generating royalties. According to Universal, Dylan’s songs have been recorded more than 6,000 times.
Cagy ol' Bob retains the mechanical rights, so if you want to use "Blowin' In The Wind" to establish that your movie takes place in the '60's he's still going to get paid.
