Listen In: A New Kind Of CEO In The Digital Age. In the latest episode of our Copy This podcast, YouTube superstar Peter Hollens talks about what it’s like to be a successful a cappella singer and entrepreneur in today’s new creative economy. Hollens started creating videos as a one-man-shop, but today, he is a YouTube cover artist with more than 1.5 million subscribers and an accomplished small business owner with more than 25 employees. Hollens credits his success to the protections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and its safe harbors, which empower creators to do what they love for a living.
You’re Invited: Re:Create At Comic-Con Next Week. The Organization for Transformative Works will be hosting “A Meet-Up Of Our Own” on July 20 during San Diego Comic-Con to commemorate 10 years as an organization, with participation from Re:Create, Superwiki, Baker Street Babes, and Mugglenet. Stop by Analog Bar next Thursday to talk fan fiction, swap Comic-Con stories, and celebrate being a fan. RVSP here.
Instagram Influencer Advertising Is A $1 Billion Industry. A July 9 segment on the TODAY show revealed that influencer advertising on Instagram is now a $1 billion industry and that 40 percent of people have purchased an item after seeing it advertised on a social media post. The latest trend has companies shifting away from traditional advertising mediums such as broadcast and print, in favor of everyday influencers to promote their products to consumers. Due to its fast growth, the market for online advertising on Instagram has the potential to reach $2 billion by 2019 according to the news segment.
How Copyrighted Software Is Hurting The Repair Industry. Pacific Standard’s Rick Paulas interviewed Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association, for a July 7 article exploring how the DMCA bars the repair industry from fixing digital products. Paulas explained that the DMCA criminalizes “attempts to circumvent technological barriers associated with digital products,” but does not account for the fact that digital technology is now standard in all types of products. “Farmers are rapidly losing the option of repairing just about anything with a tech part…There are plenty of technicians more than capable of fixing anything, but they’re very constrained in terms of what they can do legally,” Gordon-Byrne said. The U.S. Copyright Office granted the association an exemption in 2014. Gordon-Byrne noted that “right to repair” legislation has given him hope for the future of the repair industry.
Who Has Ownership Over Online Cooking Recipes? The New York Times‘ recent announcement that it will start charging for access to its digital cooking content has sparked a conversation about ownership over online recipes. The Times’ database includes almost 20,000 recipes, a daily newsletter, and instructional food videos. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, “Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients.” However, copyright protection can extend to literary expression, whether that be a description, explanation, or illustration to accompany a specific recipe or recipes in a cookbook.