The United States Copyright Office recently published its final rule for implementation of the procedures that are to govern the initial stages of a Copyright Claims Board (CCB) proceeding. The CCB will be a new forum where copyright small claims disputes can be heard.

It will have a significant impact on creators and technology businesses. Disputes previously too costly to bring to federal court can now be brought to the CCB, which allows claims up to $30,000 (no more than $15,000 per work). Many creators will either face disputes brought against them as respondents, or consider using the process as an enforcement mechanism. 

The final rule establishes a process for bringing claims at the CCB, and directly cites New Media Rights’ comments, written by California Western School of Law 2L Mariana Perez, Executive Director Art Neill, and Assistant Director Erika Lee, multiple times. Our comments discussed law school clinic participation, concerns regarding how respondents receive adequate awareness of the claims against them, the need to collect data on CCB proceedings and revisit and improve CCB processes, and various grammar and typographical errors in the proposed rules. READ MORE

New Media Rights recently received a $20,000 grant from Grant for the Web to support Grant for the Web recipients and others on the boundaries of web monetization with legal services. This grant is a continuation of our work with web monetization innovators last year, and we are thrilled to be continuing our work with the Grant for the Web community! The grant is a partnership with Grant for the Web, a program supported by the Mozilla Foundation, Creative Commons, and Coil. Grant for the Web believes that a healthy internet needs openness and opportunity, and that it cannot be built on the backs of individuals’ security and privacy. The funds are intended to support an ecosystem that will challenge the web’s most urgent issues: loss of privacy, centralization of power, and inequalities in online participation. READ MORE

Giving Tuesday is here! Please take a moment now and make a donation. 

This year New Media Rights continued to meet the challenges of the global pandemic by providing our services and law clinic online. 2021 brought challenges, but we also had victories along the way. We are glad to now be working in a new space on the California Western School of Law campus, and continuing to serve our community. 

This year we are particularly grateful for a $25,000 grant from the Conrad Prebys Foundation to support our work with creatives and creative organizations in San Diego, as well as further support via a $20,000 Grant for the Web from Mozilla and Creative Commons.

Please take a few moments to donate now to ensure that the essential legal services that we provide to hundreds of artists, creators and innovators throughout the world continue to exist. Here's what we accomplished in 2021. READ MORE

Every three years the Copyright Office meets to reconsider exemptions to the DMCA Anti-Circumvention provisions. These exemptions are critical to ensuring creators and consumers’ ability to bypass technological protection measures on copyrighted works, allowing them to make fair use of works in a variety of circumstances.  Continuing our participation every since 2009, NMR staff and California Western law students submitted worked on behalf of creators and consumers to maintain three key exemptions. These exemptions help ensure that documentary filmmakers and noncommercial video creators can access materials in fair use for their work, and that consumers can install the apps and software of their choice on their smartphones.

On October 27, 2021 the Copyright Office revealed the results of their 2021 Anti-Circumvention Rulemaking. All three of the exemptions NMR petitioned to renew have been renewed, and we are cited 8 times in the new recommendation.