But, they can get informed.

On Monday, Dec. 3, The Saratoga County Arts Council hosted a copyright tutorial for musicians from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at the Arts Center at 320 Broadway in Saratoga Springs. The workshop presented by Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest group working to defend citizens’ rights, was followed by a Q and A session.

Saratoga County Arts Council Regrant Administrator Leigh Ollman said the workshop served as a more concentrated follow-up to the “Ask the Music Lawyer” session the Arts Council hosted back in September in partnership with the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.

PK Law Clerk Rashmi Rangnath addressed a crowd of roughly 25 people about topics including what a copyright is, why copyrights exist, who owns a copyright, and how long a copyright lasts.

PK Staff Attorney Sherwin Siy continued where Rangnath left off by touching on limitations and exceptions, exemptions, infringement, and policy matters such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), orphan works and net neutrality.

Sherwin, who received his JD with a Certificate in Law and Technology from University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, has been a lawyer for two years. He believes copyright law is changing rapidly in the face of new technologies.

“Technology is advancing faster than ever before in the history of creative works,” he said. “A lot of the debates we’re seeing are the same ones there’s always been. Only now, they’re happening more frequently, with many occurring in the same generation.”

Language has always interested Sherwin; as an undergraduate, he majored in creative writing.

This is his first year involved with workshops like the one held at the Arts Center, but he said he enjoys doing them because it gives him the opportunity to translate lawyerese into English that people can comprehend.

“These are a complicated series of laws, and there can be a lot of confusion as to what the law says,” Sherwin said. “The laws are there to help everybody, and they apply to everybody. It’s kind of sad there needs to be a translation.”

The event was co-sponsored by Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, the Saratoga County Arts Council and the Arts Center of the Capital Region, and funded by the New York State Music Fund. Refreshments were provided by Circus Café.

For more information, visit www.publicknowledge.org.