RSVP Today! Re:Create To Host Copyright Event On June 20. The Re:Create Coalition will host “How It Works: Understanding Copyright Law in the New Creative Economy” on June 20 at the Capitol Visitor Center. The internet powers the local and national economy, enabling more than $8 trillion in e-commerce each year. At a time when online creativity is flourishing, Re:Create is convening panel of policy experts and creators – including Medium’s Alex Feerst, OTW Legal Chair Betsy Rosenblatt, Google Senior Policy Counsel Katherine Oyama, and YouTube star Becky “Boop” Prince – to examine the rise of the new creative economy and how copyright law can strike the right balance to promote innovation and economic growth. RSVP here to join us for lunch and attend the panel.

Frustrating Your Facebook Fans WIth DMCA Takedown Notice Is Not Good Marketing. Techdirt’s Mike Masnick reports a Facebook fan group for the The Walking Dead received a DMCA takedown notice from AMC, claiming the group’s show predictions are copyright infringement. Masnick on June 13 notes that “merely predicting what’s going to happen in a show is not copyright infringement” before pointing out the “counterproductive” nature of intentionally frustrating some of the show’s biggest fans.

$1,884 To Quote 300 Words From Newspaper In A Book. In seeking to obtain formal permission to use quotes in their book about health news coverage, two professors from UC Berkeley were charged $1,884 for less than 300 words from The New York Times–which the Times explained was a 20% discount. The Nieman Journalism Lab reported on June 9 that the professors launched a Kickstarter campaign to protest the newspaper’s “rejection of the principle of fair use.” American University Professor Patricia Aufderheide commented that the consequence of these publishing licenses is “the censorship of people who know they won’t be able to use their [fair use] rights, so they don’t even try.”

Axl Rose Issues DMCA Notice For Unflattering Memes. Guns N’ Roses rock star Axl Rose recently issued a DMCA copyright notice requesting the removal of an unflattering photo, which has become an internet meme, according to a June 7 Washington Post article. Though the takedown requests claim Rose owns the copyright of the photo, the article notes that the true copyright owner is in dispute. Furthermore, the issue illustrates how music stars have misused the DMCA to control which images end up online.

Strict Copyright Enforcement Reaches New Playing Field. The fallout from the Oracle v. Google case continues to leave its mark on the industry. Cisco has recently sued Arista on similar grounds, claiming that use of its Command Line Interfaces (CLIs) – technology that facilitates the communication between different programs – can be enforced via copyright infringement. The problem with that, according to Arista, is Cisco established their CLIs as the de facto industry standard, encouraging their customers and competitors to use the software. In Antitrust Law and the Protection of Open Standards, Interoperability, and Competition, Rachel Frank with the Public Knowledge Institute explains how the practice of “[exploiting the company’s] market position by asserting copyright over functional standards to insulate themselves from innovators and competitors” harms market competition and innovation.