Los Angeles-based Motion Picture Licensing Corp. is a worldwide independent licensing agency authorized by motion picture copyright holders mainly studios and producers to issue what’s known as the MPLC Umbrella License for nontheatrical public performances of their works. MPLC’s origins go back to those first clunky home videocassette recorders sold in the mid-1970s VCRs exploded the old studio-based licensing system for movies on film shown in nontheatrical settings like schools, retail stores, camps and clubs. Once the video business started taking off, major studios led by Hollywood giant MGM argued for copyright protections to safeguard their old nontheatrical, film-based revenue stream. That would come in 1986 with the Justice Department’s “blanket license” rule that allowed for location-based licensing for videocassettes and DVDs bought legally and intended for home use. The MGM executives that were part of those negotiations would go on to found MPLC that same year. Privately held MPLC has grown with the ubiquity of video content; it now licenses businesses and organizations in more than 450,000 locations across 22 countries ranging from retailers, libraries and hair salons to multinational corporations and government agencies.
THE QUICK BIO
Julie Maresca, MPLC’s general counsel, wanted to work in international business and saw a law degree as a critical piece of that training. A 1988 Brandeis University graduate in history, the Los Angeles native got her J.D. from Loyola Law School in 1992 and worked as an intern for a year with Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer. In 1993, she became a research attorney for L.A. Judge Alan Haber. He was based in the celebrity-centric Santa Monica courthouse, which featured the first Michael Jackson case during her tenure in 1993.
