Sampling

New Media Rights Submits Comments to the Copyright Office in Study of Artificial Intelligence and Copyright

Last modified by New Media Rights on

The Copyright Office is currently conducting a study on Artificial Intelligence and Copyright, focusing on the copyright law and policy issues raised by artificial intelligence technology. On October 30th, New Media Rights submitted comments to the Copyright Office about legal issues surrounding the use of copyrightable inputs in training datasets for artificial intelligence, primarily whether or not such training uses are fair use.

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Event: Algorithmic Justice: The New Frontier

Last modified by New Media Rights on

Please join us for a free panel on Artificial Intelligence called "Algorithmic Justice: The New Frontier" on October 12th at 5pm at California Western School of Law. This event will help kick off the school's Law, Justice, and Technology Initiative as well as the IP, Privacy, and Media Law concentration. You can register at the Eventbrite page for the event. Come join us!

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Copyright Office issues final small claims rules for Copyright Claims Board, cites New Media Rights’ comments

Last modified by New Media Rights on

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

American Intellectual Property Law Association Spring 2017 meeting - Music Copyright Panel

Last modified by New Media Rights on

Executive Director Art Neill is speaking at the 2017 American Intellectual Property Law Association's Spring Meeting in San Diego, California May 18.  He'll be speaking about music copyright, specifically The Status of Copyright Infringement of Musical Works After the "Stairway to Heaven" and "Blurred Lines" Decisions.

Our new book: Don't Panic :) A Legal Guide (in plain english) for Small Businesses and Creative Professionals

Last modified by New Media Rights on

Ever wonder what sorts of issues you may encounter as a creator or entrepreneur, and when you might want to reach out to a real life lawyer? That’s what our book "Don't Panic: A Legal Guide (in plain english) for Small Businesses and Creative Professionals" is all about. This book is designed to help you through the legal issues you may run into as a creator, entrepreneur, or innovator. We focus on issues you may encounter from the inception of your business to the moment (that hopefully doesn’t happen) you get a nasty lawyer letter for the first time. While this book is not a substitute for legal advice, it can serve as a helpful guide to preventing and resolving legal issues.

USPTO/NTIA offer up practical steps to sow the seeds of copyright reform

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Over two years ago when we submitted comments in the United States Department of Commerce, United States Patent and Trademark Office and National Telecommunications and Information Administration copyright reform proceedings and again in our roundtable testimony, we advised a cautious approach that avoided the collateral damage that can come with hasty reforms. The final report takes a cautious balanced approach and shows support for many of the points we emphasized including:

  • The importance of developing a flexible criterion to help judges and juries determine the amount of statutory damages awarded. Particularly criteria that: consider whether the defendant use was non-commercial, had reasonable fair use argument and the financial means of the infringer. With flexible standards Copyright Trolls are much less likely to be able to exploit small-scale defendants’ lack of sophistication and resources to extract inappropriate settlements from them. (see pg 75 of the report for some of our thoughts)
  • The need for more public education on matters of copyright law, including fair use, to promote creativity.
  • The creation of easy to read fair use best practices developed within specific creative communities by creators, lawyers and other practitioners working in that specific area to help creators make informed decisions about fair use.
  • Recognizing the importance of having a small claims copyright court to help independent creators resolve disputes that doesn’t sacrifice important copyright safeguards, like fair use, in the process.(see pg 78 of the report for some of our thoughts)

NMR launches law school IP and entrepreneurship clinics list!

Last modified by New Media Rights on

As we've written about before there's a major justice gap when it comes to creators and entrepreneurs having access to critical legal services. While we do our best to provide free and low cost legal services, we’re only one organization. That's why we’ve created a national list of law school legal clinics as a resource to creators, entrepreneurs and even other lawyers to help find other legal clinics fighting to fill the justice gap. The clinics on the list typically provide completely free or low cost services depending on if you qualify and they have the capacity to take on new issues. Check out the complete list here.

 

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