Meet the NMR Staff

Mera Szendro Bok

Staff: 

Communications and Information Officer

Joined NMR in: 

November 2009

Mera's knowledge of media policy, communication rights, digital rights and open web advocacy has led her to work on communications for New Media Rights. Mera focuses on communications strategy and implementation for New Media Rights services and digital rights advocacy.

At New Media Rights, Mera creates blogs, builds parts of the website, and produces videos. Mera also works on contacts management and does outreach to local and national groups to build New Media Rights' network and to partner with local and national allies. Mera's outreach work includes utilizing social media platforms to engage with diverse audiences and writing the New Media Rights newsletter.

Mera has worked to build Drumbeat San Diego since the Summer of 2010. As lead Drumbeat organizer Mera has organized volunteers, meetings and documented the work on the Mozilla Wiki and on the New Media Rights site on our main Drumbeat page.

Mera's academic backgound is in Communications and International Studies. She received her BA in NYC from Marymount Manhattan College.

Media:

  • NY Rockland Radio appearance talking about New Media Rights and new media creation.

 

Past Public Speaking Engagements:

  • LA Media Reform Summit: "Wikileaks, Net Neutrality and Netfreedom" - February 26, 2011 
  • East County Democrats: "FCC Net Neutrality order and the Comcast-merger"
  • Spoke on Media Reform for the Defending Democracy Forums - July 1st, 2010 San Diego, CA
  1. Session: “Bridging the Abyss – The San Diego move toward citizen journalism”
  2. Session: “Communicating Network Neutrality”

 



Shaun Spalding

Staff: 

Assistant Director

Joined NMR in: 

June 2010

Shaun Spalding is an intellectual property and privacy attorney with an interest in digital entertainment transactions, data-sharing agreements, and licensing.

 

Shaun has represented a handful of the top-40 most watched and most subscribed to Youtube channels in the world. Shaun is also a professor at California Western School of Law teaching an Internet and Media Law clinical course. Outside of academia, over 10,000 working creators have enrolled in his online courses aimed at teaching legal basics to creatives. The LAGD: Legal Assistance for Game Developers video series which he developed, directed, and produced with New Media Rights has over 350,000 views and counting.

 

Before making contracts and online education his main hobbies, Shaun worked as a commercial video producer making brand-integrated videos for companies like SWISS Airlines, Sharp Television, the Motion Picture Association of America, and Henkel.

 

Selected Talks 
 
NGLJA National Conference - Remote - October 2020
ScienceWriters2020 - CU Boulder, Colorado / Remote - October 2020
REC Innovation Lab - San Diego, CA / Remote - Various 2019-2020
Tech Clinic Conference - NYU / Remote - June 2020
• Bioneers Conference - San Francisco, CA - October 18th
• AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education - San Francisco, CA - May 2019
• SD Media Pros - San Diego, CA - March 2019
• NGLJA National Conference - Palm Springs, CA - September 2018
• Vlog Summit - San Diego, CA -  August 2018
• PLI Fundamentals of Copyright in the Data Era - San Francisco, CA - July 2018
• San Diego Continuing Education - San Diego, CA - June 2018
• Association of Health Care Journalists - Phoenix, AZ - April 2018
• San Diego City College - San Diego, CA - April 2018
• City of San Diego’s Small Business Advisory Board - San Diego, CA - January 2018
• SXSW Music - Austin, TX - March 2015
• SXSW Interactive - Austin, TX - March 2014
• Vidcon - Anaheim, CA - July 2012
• Oceanside Film Festival - Oceanside, CA - August 2012
• New Media Expo 2013 - Las Vegas, NV - January 2013
 
 
Selected Continuing Legal Education Programs
For partners including Thomson Reuters (West), ALM, and PLI
 
2020 - Zero to Hero: What You Need to Know During Your First Years as a Transactional Attorney
 
2020 - Cheat Sheet for Approaching New Transactional Assignments: How to Figure Out What You Should Be Doing Next
 
2019 - Contract Drafting for Transactional Attorneys: It's How You Say It (Technical Contract Drafting Tips)
 
2019 - Contract Drafting for Transactional Attorneys: Every Word Matters
 
2019 - Copyright Basics - Open Licensing
 
2019 - Copyright Basics - Licensing Overview
 
2018 - Copyright Basics part 3 - Fair Use
 
2018 - Copyright Basics part 2  - The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
 
2018 - Copyright Basics part 1 - Copyright Basics for In-House and Non-IP Lawyers
 
2018 - Copyright and Digital Content Streaming - Applying Copyright Concepts Through the Lens of Goldman v. Breitbart News
 
 
Professional Leadership
 
2013 - 2017 - Advisory Board Member - New Media Rights  
 
2014 - 2015 - Steering Committee Member and Mentor - Rising Arts Leaders 
 
2015 - Advisory Board Member – San Diego City College Radio, Television, Video, Film Program
 
2013 - Alternate to the FCC's Consumer Advisory Committee.
 
 
Selected Interviews
 
 
Okay WhateverYou Can Watch 'Titanic' — With Sims Characters. April 14th, 2020.
 
Labor Pains Podcast"Clean Up on Aisle AB5" - Labor Pains Podcast Ep 1. February 7th, 2020.
 
 
 
 
ASJA Magazine. California Court Ruling Threatens Freelancers Nationwide. September/October 2018
 
 
 
 
 
Brian Talks To PeopleEpisode 6 - Shaun Spalding. July 25, 2012
 

 

 

 

 

Teri Karobonik

Staff: 

Staff Attorney

Joined NMR in: 

June 2013

teri@newmediarights.org

Teri Karobonik is a Staff Attorney at New Media Rights where she works with all manner of creative individuals on a daily basis on preventative, transactional and pre-litigation matters. In addition to one on one assistance Teri actively engages in policy work with the copyright office as well as educational work. Teri is also an adjunct professor of law at California Western School of Law where she co-teaches the Internet & Media Law Clinic. In 2015 Teri was appointed as an Internet Law & Policy Foundry Fellow in recognition of her work as an early career leader in the tech law and policy space.

Teri received her J.D. from Santa Clara Law in 2012. While she was at Santa Clara Teri earned numerous awards for her work in IP and Privacy including a Pro-Bono Award for her work as the International Legal Intern at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in the summer of 2011. Teri received her B.A. with honors in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona in 2009. She was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.For more on Teri, check out her LinkedIn profile here and her SSRN page here.

Professional Affiliations

  • Internet Law & Policy Foundry- Fellow
  • Licensing Interest Group of the IP Section of the California State Bar- Director of Communications
  • Open Policy Network- New Media Rights representative to Open Policy Network. Member of the advisory committee for the Second Annual Institute for Open Leadership.
  • Cybertech - Champion
  • The Federal Communications Commission Consumer Advsiory Committee - Alternate for New Media Rights

Publications

Interviews

Talks

  • October 2015- Whittier Law School Fall Colloquium and Distinguished Speaker Series - Office of the Fair Use Wizard: Creators, Technology and Fair Use in the Digital Age.
  • September 2015 - TwitchCon - Can We Just Play? The Legality of Let's Play Video and Streams.
  • September 2015 - Licensing Interest Group Monthly Call - Licensing in the digital age and open licensing pitfalls and how to avoid them.
  • May 2015 - CyberHive StartUp Breakfast panel- Unintended Consequences:  Who is responsible when hyperlocal social apps get in the wrong hands?
  • March 2015 - National Association of Hispanic Journalists San Diego/Tijuana chapter - Ethics and Laws in Border Reporting
  • February 2015 - San Diego Entertainment & Sports Lawyers - Print me a Song- Emerging Issues in 3D Printing and Copyright. Part 1, Part 2, Left Shark only.
  • October 2014 - Alliance for Community Media Western Region Conference- Intellectual Property, Copyrights, and Fair Use in Media panel.
  • August 2014- San Diego Contracting Opportunities Center - IP Law for Government Contractors
  • July 2014 - Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force Green Paper Roundtable on Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy. Statutory Damages and Remix Round Tables.
  • June 2014- VidCon - Copyright on YouTube Panel.
  • June 2014 - CyberHive - IP for Entrepreneurs
  • April 2014- Maker House Tucson - Understanding Copyright as a Maker
  • April 2014- Old Pueblo Knitters Guild- Copyright Law 101 for Fiber Artists
  • March 2014- South by Southwest Interactive- Stand Up To Content Bullies, Know Your Copy Rights
  • March 2014- California Western School of Law's Business Law Society 6th Annual Spring Conference- Protecting the Intellectual Property of Small Businesses
  • February 2014-California Lawyers for the Arts & New Media Rights- Artist-Gallery Agreements and Copyright Law
  • December 2013-San Diego Mini Maker Faire - Copyright & Trademark Issues Of Digital Fabrication
  • December 2013- San Diego Central Library & FAB LAB San Diego - Panel Discussion: Copyright and IP Issues Related to 3D Printing (moderator)
  • September 2013-San Diego Python Users Meetup Group- Copyrights and Copywrongs for Internet Content
  • August 2013- VidCon Anaheim, CA-  The (IP) Law of the Land

  • July 2013- Gam3rCon San Diego, CA- Copyrights and Copywrongs for Internet Content

Hannah Lowe

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

May 2011

Hannah is a third year student at California Western School of Law, interested in pursuing a career working in Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law. She is particularly interested in the application and development of copyright law in online media and remix culture.

Dan Terzian

Staff: 

Fellow

Joined NMR in: 

September 2011

Dan Terzian thumbnail

Dan Terzian graduated from UCLA School of Law and currently lectures at Peking University School of Transnational Law. He knows little Chinese but is fluent in saying, "Hello. I'm Californian."

He reads The New Yorker, McSweeney's and the X-Men back catalog. He believes the future is now. And tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And he also believes that the law struggles to keep pace with technology.

Chrissie Himes

Staff: 

Fellow

Joined NMR in: 

August 2011

Chrissie Himes thumbnail

Chrissie is a recent law school graduate and former New Media Rights Intern turned New Media Rights Fellow. She has a strong interest in the music industry.

Ashley Gray

Staff: 

Legal Clerk

Joined NMR in: 

January 2012

 

Ashley is a second year student at the University of San Diego School of Law.  She is interested in Intellectual Property, especially relating to copyright, open source software and net neutrality.

 

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