For nearly 40 years, BESLA has supported law students financially, through mentoring and internship opportunities. BESLA also awards scholarships to deserving law student seeking careers in the entertainment, sports, and related industries.

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The Essay Competition is an annual competition that encourages original and innovative research and writing on selected related industry topics. An applicant may select one (1) of the two topics below for submission. 

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Submission Deadline: August 1, 2023 (11:59 PM EST)

BESLA ESSAY TOPIC #1: Name, Image, and Likeness (“NIL”) Contract

Your client, Carter Hansbrough, is a basketball player for the California A&M Bricklayers.  He has recently been offered a sponsorship deal by Giant Shoe Corporation.  Hansbrough has retained your legal services to review the contract to advise him concerning legal issues, as well as to assure that he remains in compliance with the Bricklayers NIL policy. The sponsorship deal contract, NIL policy, and California A&M Student-Athlete Code of Conduct are all linked below.

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►Giant Shoe Corporation Collaboration Agreement

►California A&M University Student-Athlete Code of Conduct

►California A&M Bricklayers Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) Bill Summary

 

Contract Drafting and Memo Submission:

a.    Please review the contract and provide a markup of the changes that should be made to the contract.
b.    Draft a memo (1) explaining the changes that you made to the contract; and (2) analyzing any potential legal and compliance issues.

 

BESLA ESSAY TOPIC #2: Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) Generated Creative Products

The rise of artificial intelligence (“AI”) generated creative products has gained notable significance in the last few years, across several industries, including music, art, advertising and more. There are several potential implications, including: (i) the copyrightability of AI-generated products, (ii) whether the use of pre-existing creative products to “train” AI can be considered copyright infringement, and (iii) whether AI-generated products implicate rights of publicity.

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Essay Submission: Answer each the following questions.

a.  Where a human provides instruction to direct AI-generated work, should the resulting AI-generated work be considered human authored? Should the resulting AI-generated work be copyrightable? Explain your position and what rights, if any, the AI Developer might have.
b.  Should the use of pre-existing creative works to “train” AI be considered copyright infringement? Why or why not?
c.  What rights should the artist of the creative work used to “train” AI have in the AI-generated work?

 

Use case law, statutes, articles, and other resources to support your analysis.
 

Submission Guidelines

 

All BESLA scholarship essays and memos should adhere to the following guidelines:

• Written legal memorandum

• Page Limit: Five (5) pages

• Font: Times New Roman

• Font Size: Twelve (12) point

• Spacing: Double-spaced

• Each essay should include relevant case law, law review, statutory, and/or other source citations.

• Citations will not be counted as part of the five (5) page essay limit

• Citations may only be included as endnotes (citations should not be included as footnotes)

 

Only completed submissions will receive scholarship consideration. Submissions are considered complete when they contain all of the following materials:

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Contract Drafting Exercise Requirements

• Completed BESLA Scholarship Essay Application

• Contract markup (Track Changes highly encouraged)

• Memorandum explaining contract revisions

• One (1) page resume/CV

• A personal biography not to exceed two hundred fifty (250) words

• A business professional headshot (high-resolution images highly encouraged)

 

Essay Requirements

• Completed BESLA Scholarship Essay Application

• Essay that answers all posed questions 

• One (1) page resume/CV

• A personal biography not to exceed two hundred fifty (250) words

• A business professional headshot (high-resolution images highly encouraged)

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Submission Deadline: August 1, 2023 (11:59PM EST)

Questions: info@besla.org