Fair Use Week: A Big Success. The Association of Research Libraries was joined by 142 organizations and individuals across the country to celebrate fair use last week. Each day of Fair Use Week, participants shared educational materials and stories in order to explain how Americans benefit from fair use everyday. Click here for highlights, including posts from the Re:Create Coalition and its members.
It’s Time For Disney To Let It Go. In celebration of Fair Use Week, Public Knowledge released a fair use parody of Disney’s Frozen smash hit “Let It Go.” Let Them Go: A Copyright Policy Song illustrates various components of copyright policy to the tune of the popular Disney song, while also setting an example of fair use by sampling and transforming from other clips throughout the video.
New Creators: The Strong Female Community Behind Fan Vidding. Re:Create, as part of our New Creator series, profiled fan vidders Lim and Gwyn — two creators producing fan-made videos that take existing media sources, like a TV show or movie, and create a new, remixed video. While Hollywood is dominated by male producers, directors and screenwriters, fan vidding is notable for its large female community who use vids to explore alternate storylines or character relationships that appeal to female audiences. “[The internet] has been absolutely huge for vidding – it’s really exploded into this massive international scene…” said Lim. “It speaks to an urge in people, an ordinary urge in ordinary people, to talk back, to dance, to remix and recreate.”
Join R Street, FreedomWorks, Cory Doctorow And Others For A Discussion On Property Rights In The Digital Age. On Monday, March 6, the R Street Institute will host an event on Property Rights in the Digital Age to explore the debate over digital ownership, right to repair, and other important issues that impact ownership in the digital age. The panel will feature journalist and science fiction author Cory Doctorow, Alden Abbott of the Heritage Foundation, Robyn Greene with Open Technology Institute, Sasha Moss of R Street, and FreedomWorks’ Wayne Brough as the moderator. RSVP here if you’d like to join.
U.S. Court Of Appeals Should Defend Important Protections For User-Generated Content Platforms. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Center for Democracy and Technology and Public Knowledge joined together to file an amicus brief in BWP Media v. Polyvore in support of fashion design site Polyvore. In the lawsuit, BWP Media is suing Polyvore for copyright infringement when the site’s users utilize celebrity photos (owned by BWP Media) in their content. However, EFF and others argue that Polyvore should be protected by the DMCA’s safe harbor provision in Section 512, which safeguards the platform from the potential copyright infringement of its users. In a blog post, EFF’s Kerry Sheehan and Kit Walsh explain how this lawsuit is ultimately “just the latest effort to strip user-generated content sites of their safe harbors under Section 512 of the DMCA, and to hold those platforms responsible when any of their users infringes a copyright.”
Increasing Access To The Library Of Congress. Voice of America sat down with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in Librarian of Congress to Make Collections More Accessible, where she outlined her plans to modernize and digitize the world’s largest library using the latest in technology. “We have things on our website that bring the collections to people wherever they are,” said Dr. Hayden. “They can download materials, and participate in a 3-D virtual reality tour of the library.” While the Library contains more than 30 million books, they can’t be checked out of the reading rooms. Dr. Hayden explained that technology and digitization are key to increasing public access and knowledge.