Unfortunately, New Media Rights has seen evidence in recent months that suggests that some large media companies have been able to override legitimate appeals and disputes by users regarding content takedowns.  Today's guest blog from Patrick McKay of the Fair Use and Youtube watchdog FairUseTube.org, explains the problem in more depth.

Every three years the Copyright Office considers exemptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act’s Anti-Circumvention provisions.  These exemptions are critical to protecting otherwise legal activity by internet users and independent creators alike, but they have to be reargued every three years.   

We fought all year at the Copyright Office through comments and testimony, and we're proud to have been a part of making sure these important exemptions originally proposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation were granted by the Copyright Office on October 26, 2012.

Check out this post to learn more about our work on these exemptions, and to read the Copyright Office's final rule.

You are being tracked. The tracking device is your smartphone. And the tracker? Apple and Google. And your cellphone carrier. And software companies. And countless other third parties. And shopping malls. Oh, and also potentially law enforcement agencies.

Just what, exactly, are these groups tracking? And why? Read on to find out.

It's the time of year to give thanks, and we are thankful for all those who have supported our work over the last four years.

New Media Rights is at a crossroads, and we need your support today to make sure we can continue to provide our services.

By giving today, you can help ensure that hundreds of creators, innovative new media projects, and internet users like you will get the quality legal help they need to keep creating their work, avoid lawsuits, and resist attempts to silence free speech on the internet.

On the surface, gatekeepers can look like new services enabling communication with the world around us. However, gatekeepers like Apple or Youtube, whether acting deliberately, recklessly, arbitrarily, or incompetently, can pose significant hurdles to independent creators.