Via the OTW: Fan Video & Multimedia is once again working with our Legal Committee as well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to petition for a DMCA exemption granting vidders, AMV makers, and other creators of noncommercial remix video the right to break copy protection on media files. In 2010, we won the right to rip DVDs; in 2012, we ( Read more... )

Naomi Novik's congressional testimony on behalf of fair use/fanworks; recap of hearing; video of hearing. I have to admit, I never really imagined fans defending fair use before Congress, but Naomi always did.  (Farscape reference, heh.)

Super NSFW art by pandora_gold (pun intended) for A Life Less Invulnerable (Clark/Lex, NC-17).

S1 SPN rewatch: ( Read more... )

Remixer/friend of vidding Elisa Kriesinger has partnered with Public Knowledge to do a project on fair use and takedowns. Take her survey!

Covert Affairs: ( spoilers have done something with their hair )

Two US agencies are holding hearings on copyright reform; enough powerful people (ok, companies) think that copyright law needs changing that this might actually happen.  Don't let it happen without fannish voices: the OTW is soliciting stories of how creating transformative works has helped people in day-to-day life, whether that's through ( Read more... )

Laura Shapiro explains that Jay Smooth and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are making a documentary about remix, and seeking video submissions--vidders should consider participating!

Also, the OTW is seeking stories from fans who’ve received DMCA notices, or who’ve heard mention of the so-called “right of publicity” and its relation to RPF.

( three years on and still wondering... )

What Flourish Klink says about Amazon’s new fan fiction monetization project is all worth taking seriously, especially the parts about incremental change and bringing in people who weren’t traditionally “fan fiction writers.” I think that’s actually the riskiest part (and I don’t think she argues otherwise); the internet grew to its present point ( Read more... )

Head Like a Hole mashed up with Call Me Maybe. You’re welcome. (Batman Maybe is better, but this will do.)

From the hazel orbs files, this footnote from a recent copyright opinion about whether one romance novel infringed another might be of interest:
The parties debate the extent to which the heroines’ eyes “change color with their mood and emotions ( Read more... )

Three NYT headlines, one societal clusterf*ck:

West Antarctica Warming Faster Than Thought: "New research suggests that the huge ice sheet there could collapse, with potentially drastic effects on the sea level."

How G.O.P. Shifted to ‘No New Taxes,’ Ever: "Some Republicans fear that the opposition to tax increases is coming at the expense of fiscal ( Read more... )

Fair use at risk in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

( The Dark Knight disappoints )

Wow. Your views on race affect what you think about this dog (Bo Obama, as it happens).

In the same vein, Anne Fausto-Sterling on Bodies with Histories:
Or consider spirometers, which measure lung function. The normal functioning of black people’s lungs is typically presumed to be 10-15 percent below that of white people’s. As Lundy Braun, who ( Read more... )