Expertise – Norwick Schad

Ken Norwick has been a practicing lawyer and a leading authority on intellectual property, communications, and First Amendment law for more than four decades.

Throughout that period he has litigated in courts across the United States and counseled and assisted clients in the conduct of their businesses. He is the author of several books on legal and related subjects — his most recent book is The Legal Guide for Writers, Artists and Other Creative People, published in 2017, and numerous newspaper and magazine articles. He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School, teaching Publishing Law, and has taught and lectured widely and appeared on many radio and television programs. He is a consultant to (and former official of) the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ken Norwick greets client His Holiness the Dalai Lama at a recent celebration of the latter’s 80th birthday. His Holiness is holding a copy of Ken’s book The Rights of Authors, Artists and Other Creative People.

In his legal practice, he has represented such publications as Playboy Magazine, The Source, Working Woman Magazine, Men’s Fitness Magazine, The Comics Journal, and El Diario/La Prensa, the nation’s largest Hispanic newspaper; such authors as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Garrison Keillor, Mitch Albom, Robyn Carr, Kimberla Lawson Roby, Suzanne Farrell, Michael Ondaatje, Terry Southern, Robert Pirsig, Christopher Andersen, Patricia Polacco, David Margolick, Michael Shnayerson, Lawrence Leamer, and Peter Wyden; such award-winning photographers as Annie Leibovitz, Jacques Lowe, Yunghi Kim, David Burnett, Sir Don McCullin, and Fred McDarrah; and such entities as Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S.A., Norwich University, the Estate of Abbie Hoffman, the Estate of Stanley Kauffmann, WNET 13, the public television channel in New York City, Angel Records, Calvin Klein, Inc., Ralph Lauren, Inc., the Humane Society of the United States, Contact Press Images, Hal Leonard Publishing Co., Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, Page Street Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Mint Advertising, Rodale, Inc., Photobucket, Inc., and the Book Industry Study Group. He was General Counsel to the Association of American Literary Agents and its predecessor organizations for more than four decades.

Professional Background

Mr. Norwick is a member of the New York and Massachusetts bars, as well as the bars of the United States Supreme Court and numerous lower federal courts. He began his legal career in 1965 with the New York law firm of Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst, and he subsequently worked in the administration of former New York Mayor John V. Lindsay and as Law Secretary to a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. From 1970 through 1975 he was Legislative Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and since then he has served as a special counsel and consultant to both the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union. He served as a Special Professor of Law, teaching constitutional law, at Hofstra Law School, and later as Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School. He is a member of the Authors Guild; Media Law Resource Center; the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he has served as a member of its Judiciary and Communications Law Committees; and the New York State Bar Association, where he is a member of its Media Law Committee. He is a former Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Magazine Publishers Association. From 1975 through 1996 he served as a consultant to the Freedom to Read Committee of the Association of American Publishers. He was awarded the highest evaluation, AV, by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named a New York Metro Area “Super Lawyer” for many years.

Education

Mr. Norwick received his J.D. degree in 1965 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a member of the Editorial Board of the Law Review and the founder and editor-in-chief of the Law School’s newspaper. He received his A.B. degree, cum laude, in 1962 from Syracuse University, where he majored in American Studies and was an editor and columnist for the University’s daily newspaper.

Publications

Mr. Norwick is the author of The Legal Guide for Writers, Artists and Other Creative People, published by Page Street Publishers in 2017. He was co-author of The Rights of Authors, Artists, and Other Creative People, published in 1992 by Southern Illinois University Press. He is the editor and principal author of Lobbying for Freedom in the 1980s: A Grass-Roots Guide to Protecting Your Rights, published by Putnam’s in 1983, and co-author of The Rights of Authors and Artists, published by Bantam Books in 1984. He is the author of Lobbying for Freedom: A Citizen’s Guide to Fighting Censorship at the State Level, published by St. Martin’s Press in 1975, and the editor of Your Legal Rights: Making the Law Work for You, which was originally published by the John Day Company in 1972 and republished in a revised edition in 1975. He is the author of a pamphlet entitled Pornography: The Issues and the Law, published by Public Affairs Pamphlets in 1972, and the co-author of a pamphlet entitled When Should Abortion be Legal?, published by Public Affairs Pamphlets in 1969.

From 1968 through 1971 he was the co-author of a monthly column in Publishers Weekly entitled “But Can You Do That?,” and he is the author of numerous articles and columns on legal and political subjects.

Representative Court Decisions

Landmark Internet Victory

In February 2018 Ken Norwick won a landmark court decision that New York Magazine said “had the potential to shake the very foundation on which the modern internet is built, changing the way websites from huge publications to one-person blogs do business online.” The court granted summary judgment to a photographer, ruling that websites that “embed” photos without the authorization of the copyright owners can be liable for copyright infringement. The case is Goldman v. Breitbart News Network, et al., 302 F. Supp.3d 585 (S.D.N.Y. 2018).

Estate of Stanley Kauffmann v. Rochester Institute of Technology, 932 F.3d 74 (2d Cir. 2019) (established author’s ownership of contributions to magazine, defeating claim they were owned by magazine as “work made for hire.” The Court relied on Ken’s victory in the 1995 Playboy case, discussed below)
Dlugolecki v. Poppel, et al., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14904 (C.D. Cal. 2019) (defeated claim by the ABC Television Network that its unauthorized uses of photos of Meghan Markle were “fair use”)
Storms v. Veterans of Foreign Wars of the USA, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 151240 (E.D.N.Y. 2016) (won dismissal of libel and other claims by a lawyer who was a volunteer to the organization)
Wolk v. Photobucket.com, Inc., 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 11211, 2014 WL 2723015 (2d Cir. 2014) won summary judgment dismissing copyright infringement claims against the photosharing website Photobucket brought by an artist whose work appeared on the site)
Seymour v. Lakeville Journal Co., 150 Fed. Appx. 103, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 22224, 33 Media L. Rep. 2409, 2005 WL 2573985 (2d Cir. 2005) (successfully defended Connecticut newspaper against libel suit by a prominent local resident)
Misek-Falkoff v. McDonald, et al., 63 Fed. Appx. 551, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 7902,| 31 Media L. Rep. 16322003, WL 1971793 (2d Cir. 2003) (successfully defended all defendants in $20 million libel case)
Great British Teddy Bear Co. v. McNeil-Ppc and Vidal Partnership, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45923, 2013 WL 1286146 (S.D.N.Y. 2013) (won dismissal for pharmaceutical company and advertising agency of copyright, trademark, and unfair competition claims based on advertising campaign)
Pisano v. English, Index No. 25146/09 (NY Sup.Ct. Nassau Co. 2012) (won summary judgment dismissing libel and invasion-of-privacy claims against the author of the website NYPDconfidential.com)
Wong v. World Journal, 767 N.Y.S.2d 227 (N.Y. App. Div., 1st Dept. 2003 ) (obtained dismissal of libel claim brought against major Chinese-language newspaper)
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Dumas, 53 F.3d 549 (2d Cir. 1995) (successfully represented Playboy in landmark case establishing “work made for hire” status for contributions to the magazine)
Radio Channel, Inc. v. broadcast.com, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 30058 (2d Cir. 1999) (successfully defended broadcast.com – now part of Yahoo! — in trademark case involving “fair use” doctrine in trademark law)

Irwin v. ZDF, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6156, 79 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 1338, Copy. L. Rep. (CCH) P29,141, 2006 WL 374960 (S.D.N.Y. 2006) (secured dismissal of conspiracy, conversion and other claims in action against the major public television network in Germany)
Williamson v. September Films, Ltd., 2004 NYLJ LEXIS 4501, Index No. 23846 (N.Y. Supreme Court, Bronx County 2004) (won summary judgment dismissing fraud and other claims brought by a participant in the “Bridezillas” television series)
Mager v. Brand New School, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21686, 78 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1389, 2004 WL 2413978 (S.D.N.Y. 2004) (won dismissal of claim for money damages in copyright infringement case against production company and Viacom)
McAnany v. Angel Records, 216 F.Supp.2d 335 (S.D.N.Y. 2002) (successfully defended record company against copyright and other claims asserted by a former employee)
Crescent Publishing Group, Inc. v. Playboy Enterprises, Inc., 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6987, Copyright L. Rep. (CCH) P28,091 (S.D.N.Y. 2000) (awarded over $100,000 in attorneys’ fees in successfully defending Playboy in copyright infringement case)
Goldstein v. Time Warner New York City Cable Group, 3 F.Supp.2d 423 (S.D.N.Y. 1998) (obtained injunction against implementation of cable company’s new censorship policy)
Goldstein v. Manhattan Cable Television, Inc., 916 F.Supp. 262 (S.D.N.Y. 1995) and Media Ranch, Inc. v. Manhattan Cable Television, Inc., 757 F.Supp. 310 (S.D.N.Y. 1991) (successfully represented “leased access” cable programmers in actions against cable company)
Malinowski v. Playboy Enterprises, Inc., 706 F.Supp. 611 (N.D. Ill. 1989) (successfully defended Playboy in copyright infringement case)
Pillsbury Co. v. Milky Way Productions, Inc., 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17722, 215 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 124; 8 Media L. Rep. 1016 (N.D.Ga. 1981) (successfully defended adult publication against copyright, trademark, libel, and other claims arising from satiric renditions of “doughboy” and “doughgirl” characters)
Conrad v. Yahoo! 20 cv (GHW), Docket No. 70 (2021) (defeated claim of “fair use” involving displays of photo Meghan Markle on Yahoo! Website