Our 2021 Accomplishments

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.

With your support, we've done this and more in 2021: 

• Continuing our participation since 2009, NMR staff and California Western law students worked on behalf of creators and consumers to maintain three key exemptions to the DMCA Anti-Circumvention provisions. 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.
• Launched a new guide about advertising law for businesses and nonprofits that discusses key advertising laws and regulations as they apply to a wide range of industries.
• Received $25,000 grant from the Conrad Prebys Foundation to support our work with creatives and creative organizations in San Diego who need specialized internet, arts, and media law expertise.
• Filed comments with the Copyright Office on the rulemaking regarding the initiation of proceedings and procedures related to claims brought before the Copyright Claims Board (CCB) under the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act.
• Provided legal services to filmmakers and podcasters seeking legal advice related to their social impact films and projects, including films and podcasts about: a story of survival and heroism in the face of an avalanche, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of young students, an Olympics Gymnastics controversy, San Diego’s ties with the history of skateboarding, and cycles of activism and social change throughout history. 
• Received $20,000 grant from Grant for the Web to support our work with individuals and startups working with and developing new web monetization technology.
• Reached the 1900th 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! 
• Contributed to the first Me2B Alliance recommendation, “The Attributes for Safe and Respectful Me2B Commitments,” which establishes a high-level set of data use and privacy standards that technology makers can commit to and apply to their new technology. 
• Continued our partnership with the San Diego Miramar College Regional Entrepreneurship Center (REC) to provide legal workshops and consultation sessions to early-stage startups.
• Provided consultations and legal services to projects engaging in and developing web monetization technology under a grant from the Grant for the Web.
• Brought our expertise to the community with presentations and workshops at KPBS, the 5th Annual Legal Ethics Conference hosted by California Western School of Law, California State University Northridge, and Otis College of Art and Design.
• Spoke to the Washington Post about Warner Bros.' successful efforts to stop a Maryland brewery attempting to register a trademark for the name of its beer, "Surrender Dorothy" (which depicted a yellow brick road passing under a DC area beltway overpass, with the DC-area Mormon temple depicted in the background), which was a reference to iconic Washington-DC area beltway graffiti.
• Contributed to a report from Me2B Alliance that exposed hidden functionalities that allowed mobile apps used in schools to send data to third parties without proper disclosure in 60% of the apps tested. The report received significant press attention, including a write up by the Washington Post.
• Continued to grow our CLE partnership with ALM and West LegalEdCenter producing new CLE videos in our niche practice areas.

In 2022 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 working to ensure fair processes in the CCB proceedings.