Meet Elisa Kreisinger: Artist, Pop Culture Remixer, Copyright Activist. In order to draw more attention to women and the LGBT community, Elisa Kreisinger, known as “Pop Culture Pirate,” took matters into her own hands. Profiled in the Re:Create Coalition’s new creator series, she began creating feminist video mashups of pop culture, using clips from shows such as “Mad Men” and “Sex In The City” to reinvent them into a different narrative and explore a new topic that would otherwise not be discussed. In addition to her video mashups, Kreisinger is also a fierce advocate for fair use laws and considers herself a copyright activist. Today, Kreisinger is an Executive Producer at Refinery29 where she hosts the “Strong Opinions Loosely Held” podcast and video channel. Learn more about Kreisinger and her work by visiting her podcast on iTunes, website, Facebook, Soundcloud, and Twitter.
“Is Copyright A Property Right?”: America’s Future Foundation Holds Debate On Intellectual Property. R Street Institute’s Sasha Moss participated in a July 24 panel organized by America’s Future Foundation to discuss intellectual property and the current state of copyright laws in America. Moss argued that the current copyright laws are “not in tandem with real property” and that the “current system of copyright law as intended by our founders is not working.” Sasha was joined by co-panelist Kristian Stout of the International Center for Law and Economics and moderator Jim Harper of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The full video of the panel can be found here.
Public Knowledge: Copyright Office Needs To Listen To Users. After the Copyright Office released a new study on Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Public Knowledge’s Raza Panjwani urged the Office to “believe users” like documentarians, libraries, and educators who have explained how the three-year exemption process is broken. “While it’s good to see the Office reject the content industries’ wholly unqualified opinion on what legal protections security researchers and tractor mechanics need, we’d like to see them extend that benefit of the doubt to other users as well,” wrote Panjwani.
A Fair Justice System Needs To Embrace Artificial Intelligence. In a July 20 Brookings Institute blog post, Caleb Watney offered a compelling argument for the adoption of AI-driven systems built on “free and open-source software” in the United States justice system. Watney explained that AI’s sophisticated tools are better equipped than human judgement to determine sentencing, parole and probation options. However, in order for criminal justice AI applications to properly function in training and testing their own algorithms, they would need to be built on free and open-sourced software. This would make the applications publicly available for the government and industry leaders to work together to refine how the AI systems work in a judicial context. In the long-term, Watney predicted that AI-driven systems would drastically improve the justice system by alleviating massive congestion while also improving fairness and safety.
Public Knowledge Supports Bill To Streamline Copyright Licensing Process For Music Recordings. Public Knowledge applauded a bill introduced by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) on July 21 that would establish a public database for musical works and sound recordings. Titled the “Transparency in Music Licensing and Ownership Act,” the public database outlined in the legislation simplifies the current licensing process and makes it easier for users to identify copyright holders to ensure proper compliance. Raza Panjwani with Public Knowledge said, “…the unreliability and incompleteness of music copyright ownership records are notorious, and the result is millions of dollars being wasted on lawsuits resulting from the lack of accurate information, rather than on compensating artists or improving the service.”
R Street Panel On NAFTA Modernization. The R Street Institute is hosting a panel discussion on NAFTA renegotiation and modernization on Friday, July 28. Moderated by Clark Packard, the discussion will explore the importance of including language that protects copyright limitations and exemptions, such as fair use and safe harbors, into NAFTA. Panelists will include policy experts like Computer & Communications Industry Association’s Matt Schruers. Those interested in attending the event can RSVP here.