Giving Tuesday is here! Please take a moment now and make a donation.
This year New Media Rights met the challenges of the global pandemic by moving our services and law clinic online without delay. 2020 brought challenges, but we also had some victories along the way.
Due to the pandemic, we lost a long-standing grant that usually constitutes $40,000 of our budget. However, we did receive a $20,000 grant from the Grant for the Web, which is backed by Coil, Mozilla, and Creative Commons.
So we now have some ground to make up. 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.
In response to the current health crisis, all of the staff here at New Media Rights are working remotely, taking the necessary precautions, and practicing our social distancing skills for the foreseeable future. But that didn’t stop us from continuing to serve our community.
With your support we’ve done this and more in 2020:
- Partnered with the San Diego Miramar College Regional Entrepreneurship Center (REC) to provide legal workshops and consultation sessions to early-stage startups.
- Recognized as one of the rising stars of our local San Diego community by the SD Voyager.
- Brought our expertise to the community with presentations and workshops at the California Entrepreneurship Educators Conference (CEEC), National Tech Clinics Camp 2020, California State University Northridge, San Diego State University, ScienceWriters 2020, National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Conference, and Otis College of Art and Design.
- Received $20,000 grant from the Grant for the Web to support our work with individuals and startups working with and developing new web monetization technology.
- Our paper, Fixing Copyright Registration For Online Video Creators: The Case for Group Registration of Published Videos, was published in the Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal!
- Signed a letter alongside hundreds of organizations urging Congress to continue to support the Open Technology Fund - the most effective tool Congress has in the fight to safeguard the internet as a secure democratic space.
- Provided legal services to filmmakers seeking legal advice related to their social impact films and projects, including films about: sexual harassment in workplaces and schools, immigrant families redefining belonging in an era of rising nationalism, rural perspectives on climate change, and cycles of activism and social change throughout history.
- Partnered with the Community Law Project for a second time to present media and privacy law presentations at Serra High School in San Diego. Topics included deceptive advertising online and data privacy.
- Gave free consultations at TechCon Southern California and talked to industry executives, innovators, and technologists who highlighted the depth and breadth of the Southern California technology ecosystem.
- Reached the 1600th sale of our book Don’t Panic :) A Legal Guide (in plain English) for Small Businesses and Creative Professionals. Courses nationwide now use Don't Panic as part of their coursework, from UCSD, to Berklee College of Music, San Diego City College, Rochester Institute of Technology, San Diego State University, and more! You can get your copy of Don’t Panic today! We were also honored that Don’t Panic was included in My Modern Met’s 2020 list of “24 Books Every Artist Needs on Their Bookshelf.”
- Spoke to the Washington Post about the unique challenges in the world of video game acting, including actors' rights under copyright and rights of publicity. Spoke to the Nieman Journalism Lab about intellectual property ownership in podcasting and rights for POC creators.
- Created a list of local San Diego as well as state and national resources and relief programs for small businesses in response to Coronavirus (COVID-19).
- Included in the Knight Foundation’s report, “Mapping the Civic Data Universe: Ten Ways to Improve Access to Government Information Through Expanded Interstellar Connections,” for our work with journalists and privacy law compliance as well as our work supporting open data / government transparency.
- Continued to grow our CLE partnership with ALM and West LegalEdCenter with seven new courses in our niche practice areas.
- Petitioned the Copyright Office for renewal of key anti-circumvention exemptions to protect fair use for documentary filmmakers, non-commercial video creators, and software users. The Copyright Office granted renewal of the exemptions and cited New Media directly in their proposed rulemaking.
- Joined academics across the United States in a letter to Congress explaining the role and benefits of CDA 230, a foundational law that shields intermediaries on the internet from certain types of legal liability.
In 2021 with your support, we plan to:
- Continue to provide free and dramatically reduced fee one-to-one legal services to 500+ underserved creators and innovators.
- Sponsor and organize various workshops, clinics, and community events throughout the San Diego region and the United States about privacy law, copyright law and digital rights.
- Work on policy initiatives, including fighting to restore net neutrality.
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