Beyonce, Bieber And Fair Use? Although “fair use” is supposed to be a powerful carve out to exclusive rights, the principle is not always treated as such, writes Open Technology Institute’s Emily Hong in What Beyonce and Justin Bieber Taught Me About Fair Use in Slate. “Amateur fan videos, remixes, and mashups–which arguably enrich and augment the fame of the…

The video below was filmed to introduce the world to the Re:Create Coalition, a broad collection of groups from across the ideological spectrum who agree on the need for reforms to our system of copyright. It features R Street President Eli Lehrer, as well as Public Knowledge CEO Gene Kimmelman, Katie Bowers of the Harry Potter Alliance and author Cory…

This morning the Commerce Department’s Internet Policy Task Force released a long-awaited “White Paper on Remixes, First Sale, and Statutory Damages.” The paper stems from a July 2013 “Green Paper” on copyright issues, which DisCo covered here. Following the Green Paper, Commerce convened 4 regional roundtables in mid-2014 to hear from stakeholders on three copyright subjects flagged for further review:…

  We’re taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, copyright allies are taking on different elements of the law, addressing what’s at stake, and discussing what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation. Guest author Carolina Alonso is…

  Happy Copyright Week! To celebrate, I’m looking back on all the exciting copyright cases that have occurred since last year’s Copyright Week, with courts and the music industry alike tackling everything from uncredited sampling to fair use dancing babies. I’ve rounded up some of the highlights of the year’s upheaval, and took the liberty of suggesting a few edits…

Four Years After SOPA/PIPA, Innovation And Creativity Are Still Under Attack. The op-ed Content Filtering Would Hurt Free Speech and Innovation from Re:Create’s Executive Director Josh Lamel appeared on Huffington Post, coinciding with the four year anniversary of the historical Internet blackout protests and Copyright Week (see below). Though 75,000 websites and 15 million users successfully defeated the Stop Online…

Advocacy groups and think tanks across the nation are celebrating Copyright Week this week, intended to highlight a series of discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Copyright law impacts everything from Internet access to the music we listen to the books we read. So we decided to join the fun and create “R Street’s Greatest Hits on…

The following was originally published on Huffington Post here. by Joshua Lamel, Executive Director, Re:Create This week marks the four year anniversary of the largest online protest in history, when 75,000 websites and 15 million users protested legislation supported by the entertainment industry that threatened freedom of expression online. Defeating the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act…

We’re taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of the law, and addressing what’s at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation. Today’s topic is “You Bought It, You Own It: Copyright policy should…