Re:Create At SXSW 2017 – Vote For Us! For a second consecutive year, the Re:Create Coalition is applying to bring the copyright conversation to SXSW. Our panel, Know Your CopyRIGHTS as a Digital Creator, features a YouTube personality, a journalist/author and a digital attorney to discuss fair use, what is considered infringement and other complex copyright regulations. Show us your support for fair use and vote for our panel to be selected!
“The Growing List Of How The Copyright Office Has Failed Us”. Meredith Filak Rose with Public Knowledge scrutinizes the Copyright Office in her blog post, The Growing List of How the Copyright Office Has Failed Us. In the post, she highlights what she believes are all of the Copyright Office’s shortcomings: “Aside from its seemingly never-ending quest to accumulate more power by pulling non-copyright issues under its umbrella, the Office pushes wildly expansive interpretations of copyright law–asserting rights that don’t exist, interpreting consumer safeguards so narrowly as to render them useless, preventing consumers from using assistive technologies, creating ‘solutions’ that nobody asked for, and otherwise making bizarre proclamations that completely ignore relevant facts and law.”
Aca-Believe It! Music Artist/Dorky Dad Credits The Internet For His Success. NPR’s All Things Considered interviewed YouTube creator and a cappella singer Peter Hollens about how he uses the internet to promote and spread his music. Hollens explained how he’s able to earn a living as a “36-year-old, dorky dad doing a cappella music in his garage” because of the internet and YouTube: “I’m able to do it because I believe that the future of music is one in which it goes hand-in-hand with technology.”
The Race To Buy Viral News Videos And License Them To Journalists. Have you heard of Jukin Media or ViralHog? These new companies are buying viral news videos, such as footage of police shootings, and then licensing footage to news outlets. As Techdirt’s Mike Masnick reports, lawyers are now arguing that news programs should be able to show these videos for free under fair use. He notes that clarity on viral video use will likely need to come from the courts. In the meantime, we can look to the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination, where a district court ruled in favor of fair use, but under an earlier copyright law.
Consumers Have A Right To Know If Their Purchase is “Locked”. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with Re:Create member Public Knowledge and other consumer and advocacy groups have sent a letter to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission calling on the agency to instruct retailers to inform potential customers of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions on the products they’re selling. The letter states: “The DRM-locked products are encumbered with a confusing spectrum of restrictions that consumers sometimes struggle to understand. Far more urgent, though, is the absence of any consistent signal to shoppers informing them about whether a given product is DRM-free or DRM-encumbered. This matters because the public has demonstrated a strong preference for DRM-free ebooks and other electronic products.”