Protecting Art Made by Real People in the Age of AI (CLE)

Join the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville and The Porch for an engaging panel discussion on safeguarding artistic creations in the age of accessible artificial intelligence. In this hour-and-a-half discussion, we will delve into the dynamic landscape of copyright protection with insights from accomplished artists and seasoned legal experts. 

Featured panelists include visual artist Kelly McKernan, hailed as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023, IP attorney Franklin Graves, entertainment attorney Lynn Morrow, and SAG-AFTRA Nashville President & Negotiation Committee Member Carla Christina Contreras. The discussion will be moderated by Yurina Yoshikawa from The Porch. Earn valuable CLE credits while gaining invaluable insights at the nexus of art, technology, and law.

Lunch will be provided by Adams & Reese. Please include any dietary restrictions with your order.

This course is approved by the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education for a maximum of one and a half (1.5) hours of general credit.

Moderator

Yurina Yoshikawa, Director of Education, The Porch Writers' Collective

Yurina Yoshikawa is the Director of Education at The Porch. She holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, NPR, Lit Hub, The Japan Times, and elsewhere. She was the winner of the 2020 Tennessee True Stories Contest and a 2021 recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission. She has lived in Tokyo, Palo Alto, and New York before settling down in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband and two sons. 

Panelists

Carla Christina Contreras, President, SAG-AFTRA Nashville, & 2023 TV/Theatrical/Streaming Negotiating Committee Member

Carla Christina Contreras is a professional Actress, Singer, Director, Producer, Writer, and Intimacy Coordinator for Film & TV. Recently elected President of the SAG-AFTRA Nashville Local, Contreras celebrates thirty-years of service volunteering for her union and is currently a member of the National 2023 TV/Theatrical/Streaming Negotiating Committee for SAG-AFTRA, a union of 165,000+ members. Contreras just finished directing her first animated series, and recent acting credits include the feature film ‘About My Father’ with Robert De Niro and Sebastian Maniscalco, ‘The Shift’ with Neal McDonough and Sean Astin, and the award winning ‘Incognita’s Infamous Adventures’ a kid friendly musical superhero series filmed in and around Nashville, TN, now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Franklin Graves, In-house IP, Media, and Technology Attorney and Author of the weekly newsletter Creator Economy Law

Franklin Graves is an in-house IP, media, and emerging tech attorney based in Nashville, TN. He is also an Affiliated Faculty with Emerson College’s Business of Creative Enterprises MA program where he teaches business and IP law. Franklin previously held legal roles at Eventbrite, Inc. and Naxos Music Group. He also runs the weekly newsletter, Creator Economy Law, on LinkedIn and regularly contributes as a freelance contributor to Passionfruit, Tubefilter, and IPWatchdog as a means to educate creators and raise awareness of all legal aspects of the creator economy.

Kelly McKernan, Independent Artist

Kelly McKernan is an independent artist based in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. They graduated with a B.F.A. in 2009 from Kennesaw State University in Georgia and have been a full time artist since 2012. Original watercolor and acryla gouache paintings are created for galleries, private commissions, and their online store where fine art prints and other products are also sold. In addition to maintaining a large social media following, Kelly shares tutorials and teaches workshops, travels across the US for events and comic-cons, and also creates illustrations for books, comics, games, and more. As of 2023, Kelly is a professor of illustration at Nossi College of Art in Nashville, Tennessee.

Kelly's personal work is primarily informed by their journey as an artist and human. Their art explores their personal evolution of an ever-shifting identity, informed by the sexuality and gender spectrums, motherhood, childhood trauma, escaping a religious cult, pregnancy loss and abortion, depression, divorce, neurodivergence, and chronic illness. All of this weaves itself into the quiet narrative of self-exploration behind Kelly's vibrant and ethereal paintings.

Lynn Morrow, Partner and Entertainment and New Media Team Leader, Adams & Reese LLP

Representing regional, national and international clients, Lynn Morrow advises and advocates for businesses that promote music and other forms of entertainment, and helps artists, authors, songwriters, producers, music publishers and independent record companies negotiate deals. She also works with independent publishing companies, record companies and large non-profit ministries with a music element, helping them to protect their intellectual property and content. Previously a litigator, Lynn brings courtroom and negotiation skills to her practice.

Lynn crafts custom-made deals for each individual or entity, emphasizing what’s important to that particular client. With a deep familiarity with the process and specificities of entertainment contract negotiation, Lynn aims for the sweet spot of inking a unique deal for her clients that still falls within parameters realistic to industry norms. Understanding that she might not get a chance to renegotiate a contract for a number of years, she strives to get her client as far “up the ladder” as possible on the first go-round.

Because Lynn has many years of experience in this area of law, she’s familiar with nearly every type of deal in existence, even given the dramatic changes in the music industry over the past decade or more. In her deal-making, Lynn approaches each matter with a focused, integrity-based and respectful-but-assertive mindset. Emphasizing clear communication, Lynn takes great care to listen carefully to her clients and is available and responsive to them.

Lynn writes extensively on copyright and entertainment-related subjects, and her article, "The Recording Artist Agreement: Does it Empower or Enslave?" was published by the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment Law and Practice. In addition, Lynn speaks frequently before legal and entertainment industry audiences. Lynn is the past Chair of the Entertainment and Sports Section of the Nashville Bar Association and Tennessee Bar Association. In 2013 and 2018, Lynn was named Best Lawyers® Lawyer of the Year in Entertainment Law in Nashville, and since 2008, she has been ranked among Best Lawyers® in Entertainment Law - Music, Copyright Law and Intellectual Property Law. She also belongs to the Entertainment and Sports Law section of the California Bar Association, United States Tennis Association, the Gospel Music Association, Country Music Associate, and the Copyright Society of the South.

Lynn assisted in the development of the firm’s Entertainment and New Media Practice Group and serves as the Team Leader.