Policy Advocacy

Our latest work on media policy and intellectual property policy.

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Event: Health Journalism 2018 conference in April 2018

New Media Rights will be speaking at the AHCJ (Association of Healthcare Journalists) annual meeting this year in a panel on Sunday, April 15, 2018 from 9 to 10:20

The Health Journalism 2018 conference will take place in Phoenix, AZ at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs resort.

Panel details:

Think Before You Sign: At one time or another we all sign contracts with worrisome clauses – we have to earn a living! We may also spend a lot of time chasing our dream publications, but what happens when you’ve finally broken in only to learn that the contract gives you the jitters? Paying attention to contracts and protecting oneself against litigation has never been more important than in today's media environment as contracts from websites to the glossies are evolving in ways that don’t benefit writers. For instance, contracts that are work-made-for-hire and also contain an indemnity clause can leave freelancers especially vulnerable. This panel will help you understand clauses in contracts that leave you legally and financially vulnerable, and will provide strategies to help you push back. Not all efforts to get a publisher to change clauses are met with success, and, in the end, you may decide it’s best to walk. This panel will provide the information you need to help decide what’s best for you.

Come out and join us if you're in town!

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Things you can do to be #PrivacyAware on Data Privacy Day 2018

New Media Rights has joined the National Cyber Security Alliance for the fourth year in a row in its international effort to support privacy awareness: Data Privacy Day. Each January 28th, hundreds of organizations and individuals collaborate to generate awareness about the importance of respecting privacy and safeguarding data.

For our part during the year, each year we respond to 500+ requests for legal services. Many of those assistance requests relate to either helping consumers deal with potential privacy violations or helping businesses/non-profits/creators understand and avoid violating user privacy in their projects.

Since Data Privacy Day is this Sunday, it's a time to bring focus our efforts to both prevent privacy violations before they happen as well as provide clarity and next steps to those who have suffered violations.

We've found many privacy-related legal issues can be avoided if the projects responsible for the violations -- the startup companies, app developers, and nonprofits who are collecting, tracking, and publishing user data -- start with a well-thought out game plan before collecting any data.

That said, formulating that game plan is expensive because it requires (a) access to expert knowledge that only a few attorneys are trained to provide and (b) a large time commitment from those attorneys who have to interface with the technical developers, managers, and key-decisions makers related to the project. READ MORE

New Media Rights partners with University of California on adaptation of our Fair Use App for UC staff and faculty

We are pleased to announce a new partnership between New Media Rights and the University of California. Craig Bentley, a Managing Instructional Technologist at UC San Diego, is working with New Media Rights to adapt the Fair Use app into a system to help train UC faculty and staff system wide on copyright and fair use matters. “In designing educational videos for the University of California system, all of our campuses are constantly faced with questions about fair use. The foundation of the Fair Use app developed by New Media Rights should help us deal with fair use issues much more effectively in the future,” said UCSD's Bentley.

#CopyrightWeek 2018: Accessible Legal Services Are Part of Building A Better Copyright System

Happy Copyright Week! We respond to over 500 requests for legal services every year, and over two thirds of these relate to copyright law. Copyright law protects the work of creators, but it also controls how the culture around us can be reused and commented upon. It's our mission to make sure that copyright related legal services are available to all regardless of ability to pay. This way copyright law can be used as a tool for responsible enforcement, not trolling and bullying. This week a community of awesome organizations are offering our visions of a balanced copyright future.

Each day there will be posts on a specific theme. Since much of what we do day in and out is copyright law, we're going to link you to some of our best resources, new and old, on copyright law for the given topics.

Copyright Week image photo credit - EFF under a CC-BY 3.0 license

New Media Rights Legal Resource Library

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Learn about our legal services for: App Developers, Artists & Graphic Designers , Bloggers & Journalists, Clothing Designers, Entrepreneurs, E-commerce Business People & Startups, Filmmakers & YouTube creators, Public Broadcasting producers,Game Developer s, Internet users & Smartphone users , Maker s, Musicians, Non-Profits, Photographers, Scholars, Researchers , and Writers and Publishers.