The Harvard Law School Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law held their annual Entertainment Law Conference yesterday. I, of course, was there for the entire five hours. To my disappointment, Donald Passman, author of “All You Need to Know About the Music Business,” got sick and could not make it. I thought the “Negotiating Music Contracts” panel did a good job covering all the topics discussed in Passman’s book though.

It was interesting to watch the banter between counsel for the labels (Capitol and MCA were represented) and the music lawyers who represent the artists. They all agreed on one thing: music piracy is the big problem - Quite a contrast from Lawrence Lesig’s vision of free information.

Overall the conference was great. I’m jealous of Harvard’s ability to gather such a large number of such influential industry leaders for a classroom-size conference. But at least they were willing to share.