“Orphan works” – it may sound like a description of Oliver Twist remakes, but actually it is a copyright issue that affects a large number of filmmakers and artists today. In the world of copyright, the term refers to works—possibly protected by copyright—whose owners are unidentifiable or undiscoverable. You or someone you know […]

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Via the Center for Social Media at American University, “When college kids make mashups of Hollywood movies, are they violating the law? Not necessarily, according to the latest study on copyright and creativity from the Center and American University’s Washington College of Law.
The study, Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video, by Center […]

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Via Art Brodsky, communications director of PK, “At about the same time this morning that Gigi [Sohn, president of PK] was giving a major speech on copyright reform at Boston University, she was also part of a Good Morning America story on copyright reform.
The GMA story was about the woman who got a take-down notice […]

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Via WIRED, “Disney, CBS, Microsoft, Fox, NBC, Viacom, Dailymotion, MySpace and Veoh Networks announced so-called User Generated Content Principles that appear aimed at stifling fair use. The announcement calls for the ‘implementation of state of the art filtering technology with the goal to eliminate infringing content on (user-generated content services), including blocking infringing uploads before […]

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UPDATE: You can view a recording of this event here. 
Confused about copyright? You’re not alone. Media literacy educators rely on the ability to use copyrighted materials in their teaching. But ignorance about copyright — and particularly a lack of awareness of the fair use provision - is interfering with teachers’ ability to teach important critical […]

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