Don’t Be Fooled By Hollywood’s Latest Fiction. In yet another attempt to push heavy-handed enforcement measures, Hollywood and members of the entertainment industry are calling for more stringent copyright enforcement. “The gatekeepers of the entertainment industry claim to represent ‘creators’ yet they routinely ignore the interests of millions of bloggers, podcasters, internet video stars and Etsy artisans who rely on…

MPAA, Creative Groups Urge Pro-IP Track in Trade Talks By Anne Veigle January 24, 2018 “…NAFTA delegates and policymakers ‘shouldn’t be fooled by Hollywood rhetoric,’ responded Joshua Lamel, Re:Create Coalition executive director. ‘The gatekeepers of the entertainment industry claim to represent “creators” yet they routinely ignore the interests of millions of bloggers, podcasters, internet video stars and Etsy artisans who rely on…

Farmers Or Celebrities? Livestreaming Changes Country Life In China. Livestreaming is transforming some Chinese farmers into celebrities, reported NPR. Liu Jin Yin is a 26-year-old farmer who earns far greater income from livestreaming videos of his daily life in rural Sichuan Province to nearly 200,000 subscribers. “When I started livestreaming, my neighbors saw me talking to myself and thought I…

Users Don’t Own Their Marvel “Create Your Own” Comics. Social media and other creative platforms are usually celebrated for empowering ordinary people to create and share content. However, Marvel’s “Create Your Own,” a new platform for fans to write comic strips featuring Marvel characters, ironically does just the opposite, according to The Verge’s Kaitlyn Tiffany. The “Create Your Own” terms…

America’s Public Domain Laws Remain Stuck In The Past. January 1 marked Public Domain Day — the date when certain published works enter the public domain, allowing artists and consumers to freely appreciate, recreate and remix works by creators like Rene Magritte, John Coltrane and Winston Churchill. The U.S., however, will wait one more year until works enter the public…

Keep America Winning Online: Promote America’s Balanced Copyright System By Joshua Lamel Morning Consult December 14, 2017 When the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1993, the internet economy as we know it today barely existed. Online content platforms such as Facebook and YouTube were a decade from launching and a few lucky users connected to the internet…

Re:Create Executive Director: Keep America Winning Online By Promoting A Balanced Copyright System. Executive Director Joshua Lamel penned a December 14 op-ed in Morning Consult calling for balanced copyright provisions, such as safe harbors and fair use, to be included in a renegotiated NAFTA if copyright is included in the agreement. Lamel wrote: “Fair use benefits 18 million American workers,…

Is Browsing The Web A Copyright Violation? In a recent blog post, Public Knowledge’s Katrina Worsham explained how current court interpretations essentially render browsing the internet a copyright violation. “Courts have held that creating a copy of website code in a browser’s cache constitutes a copyright violation. The issue here is that copying site code into a browser is the only…

Meet Malinda Reese: Google Translate Cover Artist, Actress And YouTube Vlogger. Malinda Reese first gained attention when she performed a parody of the Disney hit song “Let It Go,” by using an online translator to convert the lyrics through multiple languages. The end result went viral and has been viewed more than 10 million times. In the latest profile for…

Academics & Tech Groups Tell USTR: Fair Use Must Be In NAFTA. Over 65 intellectual property law professors and copyright experts signed onto a set of principles that NAFTA trade delegates should follow to protect public interests. Principles highlighted in the document include copyright limitations and exceptions such as fair use and safe harbors. Likewise, technology associations including the Internet…