Hank Risan (born February 13, 1955) is an American business executive, scientist, and creator of digital media rights and security patents.

Early life and education

Risan was born in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

in 1955. He began studying the piano at age 5 and the guitar at age 13. At age 15, Risan became an apprentice to fretted instrument maker Jonathan Carmi Simon at the Dulcimer Works in Los Angeles and at age 17 started buying and selling vintage guitars made by C. F. Martin & Company. Risan worked with noted neurobiologist Dr. Charles Leo Ortiz, head of the Dept. of Biology at

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

(UCSC). Risan also did 3-D simulated computer modeling of the tertiary topology of the hemoglobin molecule with a grant from the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. For Dr. Gerhard Ringel, head of the Math department at UCSC, Risan worked on embeddings on orientable and non-orientable surfaces. He also worked on a non-computer-based solution for the four color theorem. During the 1970s, Risan studied mathematics for two years at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

(UCLA) and earned

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

s in mathematics (with Honors) and biology from UCSC. His undergraduate thesis in neurobiology concerned the

network topology Network topology is the arrangement of the elements ( links, nodes, etc.) of a communication network. Network topology can be used to define or describe the arrangement of various types of telecommunication networks, including command and contro ...

of the human brain. Risan concurrently attended

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

programs at UCSC and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

(where he was

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

) in mathematics and neurobiology. He also studied topological manifold theory with

Robion Kirby Robion Cromwell Kirby (born February 25, 1938) is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in low-dimensional topology. Together with Laurent C. Siebenmann he invented the Kirby–Siebenmann invariant f ...

, co-inventor the

Kirby–Siebenmann class In mathematics, more specifically in topology, geometric topology, the Kirby–Siebenmann class is an obstruction for topological manifolds to allow a ''PL''-structure. The KS-class For a topological manifold ''M'', the Kirby–Siebenmann class \ka ...

, at UC Berkeley. Risan completed his Ph.D. dissertation at

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, England and he attended graduate-level business courses at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

Career

Risan was a securities trader during his career. Currently, he is CEO o
Media Rights Technologies, Inc.
and its subsidiary, BlueBeat Music, and chairman o
TheMoMI.org
an online repository of articles about musical instruments.

Media Rights Technologies, Inc.

In 2001 Risan and his business partner, Bianca Soros, founded Media Rights Technologies, Inc. (MRT) (originally called "Music Public Broadcasting") to develop

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

and technologies that would enable secure transmission, protection and monetization of digital content within a computer network. In 1999 Risan funded a team of 16 software engineers to develop technology that would protect record companies, Hollywood studios, and other digital content owners against piracy and ensure accurate monetization of their content. In 2001 Risan began filing domestic and foreign digital media and security patent applications, more than 20 of which have been allowed to date.

Beatles controversy

In November 2009 Risan sparked a copyright controversy when BlueBeat offered its full catalog of simulated songs for $0.25 per download, including, for the first time,

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

songs. London-based EMI Group Ltd. filed suit, accusing BlueBeat of violating copyright law by offering the Beatles’ entire catalog without EMI’s permission. A spokesperson for EMI said the company had "not authorized content to be sold or made available on Bluebeat.com." In court filings, BlueBeat asserted that it legally licensed the Beatles simulations and was paying royalties due. BlueBeat further claimed that it lawfully simulated the Beatles songs under the sound-alike provision o
Section 114 (b) of the Copyright Act
" After listening to the BlueBeat simulations, Federal Judge John F. Walter issued a temporary restraining order against BlueBeat.com to stop selling the Beatles song simulations online, opining that differences in the sound recordings were not discernible. BlueBeat agreed to stop selling the Beatles simulations until the

U.S. Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...

issues a registration for the simulations, and settled the EMI lawsuit with no admission of liability for $950,000.

Personal life

Collections

Hank Risan musical instrument collection included more than 750 examples of fine 19th and 20th century acoustic instruments. Risan owns an 1835

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austr ...

2½-17 guitar that is believed to have accompanied

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

(born Samuel Clemens) throughout his life. During a 1999 appearance on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

's (NPR) "All Things Considered" program Risan played an arrangement of the

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Minstrel show, minstrel music during the Romantic music, Romantic ...

classic, "Old Susannah," on the Twain guitar. In 2014, Risan placed 265 of his classic guitars on the block with boutique auction house Guernsey's in New York. The auction was called "The Artistry of the Guitar". However, many of the guitars, including the Martin--which was ultimately purchased by The Martin Guitar Company--did not reach their pre-auction estimates or reserves. Risan also owns an authenticated Maltese Falcon prop from the 1941 Warner Bros. film production directed by

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...

and starring

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Risan, Hank Living people 1955 births American inventors American business executives American collectors