Copyright Society of the South

That’s My Song: The World of Nashville Songwriters
2026-05-13 11:30 - 13:00 (America/Chicago)
Attorney and Vanderbilt law professor Joseph Fishman will report original interview data on the working lives of Nashville songwriters. The presentation will be based on Joseph Fishman’s book in progress, That’s My Song, which tells the story of both how songs get made and how those songs get people paid. The presentation will focus particularly on songwriters’ most important revenue streams and their perceived allies and adversaries within the music ecosystem.
Fishman’s research focuses on intellectual property, particularly as it affects the music industry. His recent scholarship has covered such legal issues as infringing similarity between songs, the role of expert witnesses in music copyright litigation, judges’ definition of musical originality, and trademark issues related to sound recordings. He is currently writing a book on how law affects the livelihoods of professional songwriters. He has also written extensively on the law of trade secrecy. His work has appeared in leading academic journals, including the Harvard Law Review, NYU Law Review, and the California Law Review, and he is a regular commentator in major media outlets such as The New York Times, NPR, USA Today, and Billboard.
Professor Fishman joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty in fall 2015 after serving as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School. He earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard College with a joint major in music and religion, his M.Phil. in musicology from the University of Cambridge, and his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. After law school, he was a law clerk for Judge Jeffrey R. Howard of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and for Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He practiced as an associate at Jenner & Block in the firm’s content, media, and entertainment group, where he specialized in litigation involving the music industry, before entering the legal academy.

This is a private event for Society members and their registered guests. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Copyright Society of the South, or if you are an active member and did not receive your email invitation, contact us at copyrightsocietyofthesouth@gmail.com .

☀️ Summer Hiatus Notice ☀️
2026-05-15 08:00 - 2026-08-15 17:00
The Copyright Society of the South is officially on summer hiatus for June and July! We want to wish all of our members and guests a happy, relaxing, and safe summer season.
We will return with our regular programming and monthly luncheons in August 2026. Stay tuned for updates on our upcoming schedule, and we look forward to seeing you all late this summer!

The Annual Copyright Review with Stan Soocher
2026-12-10 11:30 - 13:00
Stan Soocher is an award-winning journalist and entertainment attorney, as well as the long-time Editor-in-Chief of Entertainment Law & Finance, an ALM publication. In addition, Stan is Professor Emeritus of Music & Entertainment Industry Studies at the University of Colorado Denver, where he served as a Music Department Chair.
Stan has authored the books Baby You’re a Rich Man: Suing the Beatles for Fun & Profit and They Fought the Law: Rock Music Goes to Court. Stan wrote the chapter “Twenty-First-Century Patronage: The Road to Billy Joel’s Madison Square Garden Concert Residency” in the 2020 book We Didn’t Start the Fire: Billy Joel and Popular Music Studies , edited by Joshua S. Duchan and Ryan Raul Bañagale/Lexington Books. Billy Joel wrote the book’s Foreword.
Stan has given speeches on entertainment law and related industry issues to bar associations and/or entertainment industry conferences in Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Austin, Washington, D.C., the United Kingdom, Germany, Las Vegas, Miami, Oregon, Minnesota, Virginia, Washington State, Orlando, Atlanta, Boston, New Orleans, North Carolina, New Jersey and Colorado, among other locations.
Stan is a recipient of the State Bar of Texas Entertainment & Sports Law Section’s “Texas Star Award.” The award is given to an individual “who has made a major and noteworthy contribution to the practice of entertainment law.” Also during his career, Stan has received ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for excellence in music journalism, including for his music law articles in Rolling Stone, The National Law Journal and Musician Magazine.
Among the many media outlets who have interviewed Stan about entertainment industry issues are the Associated Press, National Public Radio, CNN, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, New York Daily News, The New York Post, Miami Herald, Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Salt Lake Tribune, Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, Variety, London Times and BBC-TV.
For many years, Stan covered the federal appeals courts in a weekly section for The National Law Journal. Early in his career, he worked as a reporter and associate editor for the rock music magazine Circus.
In recent years, Stan’s articles also have been published in such media outlets as the cover of the American Bar Association Journal, and in Law.com, The New York Law Journal, Daily Report (Atlanta), American Lawyer, The Recorder (California), Intellectual Property Strategist, Daily Business Review (Florida), Legal Week (UK), Connecticut Law Tribune and Inside Counsel.
Stan holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from the University of Florida and a J.D. from New York Law School. He is also a drummer.

This is a private event for Society members and their registered guests. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Copyright Society of the South, or if you are an active member and did not receive your email invitation, contact us at copyrightsocietyofthesouth@gmail.com .
