Re:Create Coalition To European Commissioners: Safe Harbors Enable The Internet To Flourish. After news spread across the pond that the European Commission is considering departing from the safe harbor framework under EU copyright law, Re:Create’s Executive Director Joshua Lamel sent a letter this week to European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip and Commissioner Gunther H. Oettinger. The letter states, in part: “Weakening EU safe harbor provisions on which startups and internet businesses rely will have a negative economic impact on the digital economy…We encourage you to strongly consider the negative impacts of these proposed solutions, and maintain both the safe harbors and user privacy online to allow the internet to continue growing and supporting economic growth and creativity across the globe.”
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, journalist/author and a digital attorney discussing fair use, what is considered infringement and other complex copyright regulations. Show us your support and vote for our panel!
Internet Adapts To Olympics Copyright Ban On GIFs. Internet users have been prohibited from creating GIFs, Vines or other footage because of the International Olympics Committee rules. Fortune reports in Here’s Why You Won’t See Any GIFs of the Rio Olympics that “The GIF-ban will prevent moments from the games this year from being immortalized, so it’s unlikely Internet-goers will see another GIF like the one made of gymnast McKayla Maroney’s flawless vault during the 2012 Olympic games in London.” However, some users have attempted to create GIFs using songs to show just how wide the gap between swimmer Katie Ledecky and her competitors was. New York Magazine argues the tweet, which was removed in response to a DMCA takedown, should be protected under fair use as a transformative and noncommercial work. Furthermore, “the thing that the IOC is clearly banking on, successfully, is that the internet moves much more quickly than takedown disputes do.”
Dancing Baby Case To Go To Supreme Court? The court case defending a 30-second YouTube clip of a baby dancing to a Prince song may appear before the Supreme Court, according to an August 16 Newser article. A court of appeals ruled in 2015 that Universal Music Group should have considered fair use before issuing a takedown notice against mom Stephanie Lenz, yet the court also ruled that copyright holders have the right to decide if infringement occurred based on their own standards. Lenz hopes the Supreme Court will overturn this “subjective criteria.”
Original Conception Of Iconic Songs Proves Why Copyright Term Limits Are Important. The estates of the iconic songs “This Land is Your Land” and “We Shall Overcome” are fighting to maintain their copyright protections. R Street contributor Amanda Farenthold argues that copyright holders must allow the public to use these hits as inspiration, just like the original creators did. In her blog post, These songs are our songs, Farenthold writes: “Allowing songs like ‘This Land is Your Land’ and ‘We Shall Overcome’ to enter the public domain…will allow other creators to produce new content inspired by cultural classics, just like artists before them did.”
Libraries Urge Copyright Office To Reconsider Section 108 Reform. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), along with other library and archive affiliates, is leading the charge to educate the Copyright Office on why reforming Section 108 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is wrong. In Why is the Copyright Office Trying to Reform Section 108?, ARL’s Krista Cox criticizes the “utter lack of transparency” about the process and argues the law still works well: “The inherent risks in reforming Section 108 are unlikely to outweigh what may be modest benefits in an update to a section of the copyright act that is actually working.”