Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from a previous Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Media Summit 2008 Wednesday, March 12 10:45 AM - Noon Session A: Legal Issues: Traditional Media Transitions to New Media Newspaper publishers and broadcasters face the challenge of adapting to a rapidly changing media environment. As more people turn to new media platforms for information and entertainment, traditional media companies have recognized that they must expand to embrace and exploit new media opportunities. This expansion raises numerous legal issues. What are the key considerations in negotiating strategic alliances with a major Web player, such as Google or Yahoo? How can local media operations leverage their local content rights and the content they license from third party sources (e.g., wire services, networks, syndicators, freelancers) so that they can use content on the Web, on mobile, and on other non-local media? How can they incorporate user generated content into their offerings without increasing their potential liability? When publishers and broadcasters negotiate new media deals, how can they gaze into a crystal ball and determine what rights they'll wish they had reserved for themselves, and what limitations or restrictions they'll wish they had imposed on the other party as media platforms evolve? This session features lawyers for major publishers and broadcasters who are grappling with these and many other issues as traditional media companies become multiple-platform media operations. Barbara W. Wall, Esq., Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Gannett Co., Inc. Clifford M. Sloan, Esq., Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Company Jerry S. Birenz, Esq., Partner, Sabin, Bermant & Gould LLP Mark Stehr, Principal, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services Kevin Kuzas, General Counsel, Comcast Interactive Media David J. Wittenstein, Esq., Member, Dow Lohnes PLLC, Moderator Barbara W. Wall, Vice President/ Associate General Counsel, Gannett Co., Inc.: Barbara Wall is Vice President/Associate General Counsel of Gannett Co., Inc. where she advises Gannett's newspapers, broadcast stations and websites on a variety of issues, including online developments, intellectual property, ethics, and libel and privacy. Wall joined Gannett in 1985. From 1979 to 1985 she practiced law in New York City with the law firm of Satterlee & Stephens. She has written and lectured on the First Amendment, Intellectual Property rights, and the emerging law of the Internet. Ms. Wall serves on the faculty for the Practising Law Institute’s annual Communications Law program, and is Past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Communications Law. She also serves on the Newspaper Association of America's Legal Affairs Committee and on the Advisory Board for the Reynolds National Center for Courts and Media at the University of Nevada, and teaches media law as an adjunct professor at both the American University School of Communication and George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. Cliff Sloan, Publisher, Slate Magazine; VP, Business Affairs & General Counsel, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive: Cliff Sloan is Publisher of Slate Magazine. He also is Vice President, Business Affairs and General Counsel of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, The Washington Post Company's internet and new media subsidiary. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Sloan has been a leader in online media at The Washington Post Company since 2000. Among his other activities, he previously served in various government positions, including Associate Counsel to the President of the United States (1993-95), Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice (1989-1991), and Law Clerk to Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (1985-86). He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with his wife and three children. Jerry Birenz is a partner in the firm of Sabin, Bermant & Gould LLP in New York City. Jerry's practice involves all areas of publishing, including copyright, licensing, new media, libel, privacy, advertising, promotions, sweepstakes, and contracts. Among his firm's main clients are The Condé Nast Publications, publisher of Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Gourmet, The New Yorker, and other magazines in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, many newspapers and business journals throughout the United States, the Bright House Networks cable systems, and a variety of World Wide Web sites, such as Epicurious, Style.com, Bizjournals, and NJ.com. Jerry has recently been devoting a lot of time and thought to the legal and practical issues affecting new media, to the impact of new media on print publishing, and to transactions involving the Internet. Jerry began his legal career at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York, where he was on the legal team that represented William Tavoulareas and his son in their libel suit against The Washington Post, for three years. Jerry then worked “in-house” at Prentice-Hall/Simon and Schuster for two years. He joined Sabin, Bermant & Gould in 1985. Kevin Kuzas is Vice President and General Counsel of Comcast Interactive Media (“CIM”), the division of Comcast dedicated to growing and developing emerging Internet businesses. CIM’s products include the Comcast.net high-speed Internet portal; Fandango.com, a top movie and entertainment destination, selling movie tickets at over 15,000 screens; Fancast.com, a national online entertainment site; and thePlatform, an industry-leading provider of digital media publishing solutions over broadband and wireless networks. Before joining Comcast, Kevin was a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, and before that a partner at Dow Lohnes, PLLC, both in Washington, DC. Kevin graduated with honors from the University of Southern California in 1989, and is a 1992 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. Before beginning law practice, Kevin served as a law clerk to United States District Judge Sam Conti in San Francisco. David Wittenstein, Partner, Dow Lohnes: David Wittenstein joined Dow Lohnes in 1981 and serves as the head of the firm's Media and Information Technologies practice. He specializes in intellectual property, content and related issues for the media, telecommunications and technology industries. He has participated in several copyright cases of first impression, as well as in other intellectual property litigation. He has negotiated numerous content licensing, acquisition and distribution agreements across all media and regularly counsels clients on the full range of copyright and trademark issues, ranging from fair use analyses to re-use of traditional media content in online ventures. In recent years, Mr. Wittenstein has focused increasingly on issues relating to the Internet and new media. Mr. Wittenstein was an Adjunct Professor at Howard Law School for a number of years, teaching the law school's copyright law course. Mr. Wittenstein has published articles on programming and has given numerous speeches and seminars on media and intellectual property subjects. He graduated from Haverford College, magna cum laude, and from Duke University Law School, where he served as an editor of the Duke Law Journal.