Policy Advocacy

Executive Director Art Neill and Legal Fellow Alexandra Inman spoke to arts teachers and administrators from across San Diego County on Friday May 10, 2019 about copyright, fair use, openly licensed resources, and educational exceptions. We had a great time discussing what students need to know to fully exercise their rights to create, as well as the importance of understanding the business end of creating. We also made sure teachers know that they have unique abilities to use copyrighted works in the classroom that are protected by law. 

New Media Rights recently teamed up with California Western's Community Law Project (CLP) to present a media and privacy law presentation at Hoover High School!  

Assistant Director Shaun Spalding and Staff Attorney Erika Lee talked to three freshman classes about some of the laws that control deceptive advertising online, data collection laws like the Children's Online Privacy Act, and how social media sites comply with these important laws. We also got to talk about how some artificial intelligence technologies learn from the content that people post online. READ MORE

Staff Attorney Erika Lee will be participating in the "Funding and Distribution for Feature Films" panel duriing San Diego Film Week 2019! On Saturday at 1:30pm, Erika will be discussing film financing and distribution for the local San Diego market, and exploring the different or nontraditional approaches that are available.

Executive Director Art Neill will be speaking at Intersections: Art and Law at the Border on Saturday, April 6 at 10am! He will be discussing intellectual property for artists in the digital age, including copyright, fair use, licensing, and some of the key issues that artists face on a global spectrum. 

There are many situations, particularly in a classroom environment, where you might want to use copyright-protected material but you can’t obtain permission from the copyright holder. A common example would be a teacher who wants to read a poem from a book or show an educational cartoon to her class. Thankfully, copyright law addresses these particular types of uses directly, in 17 U.S.C. § 110. Section 110 provides important exemptions for certain performances and displays of copyrighted works in the classroom (and certain limited online learning situations) that would otherwise be considered infringement.

Staff Attorney Erika Lee and Assistant Director Shaun Spalding will be at the March SD Media Pros meeting to discuss copyright and creative contracts! 

Join us on Wednesday, March 27th as we cover some advanced copyright topics, including licensing and fair use, and a big picture discussion of contracts for creative professionals. What do you need to include in your freelance contracts? What do terms like "indemnification" and "representations and warranties" mean? How can I protect my interests when I enter into a contract with a distributor?  Join us to learn more about how you can use your creative content as leverage in your contracts.

It's Fair Use Week 2019 this week, but every week is Fair Use Week for New Media Rights, because every day we fight for artists and innovators against legal bullies who don’t respect fair use and work to empower creators by providing them with important information on the law.

Fair use is the vehicle millions of individuals use to exercise their freedom of expression every day. That's why this week, we'll be highlighting why fair use is important to creators and what New Media Rights is doing and has done to support it. Read more