Please help us by making a tax-deductible donation

Please support us by donating to our Founders campaign today! We are a 501(c)3 so your donation can be tax-deductible. Here's a list of current Founders.

New Media Rights provides free help for artists and startups

New Media Rights answers questions from the public and takes media inquiries regarding the law and technology. Please contact us if you have a question and we'll be glad to assist you. Our free legal and how-to resources, as well as our free public media studio and equipment, are supported by donations by individuals like you, so please consider donating today! Contact us with questions about your digital rights.

Stop the Stop Online Piracy Act

Dan Terzian's picture
Submitted by Dan Terzian on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 10:44

Congress is once again considering passing new laws regulating piracy on the Internet. The House of Representatives is currently considering passing the Stop Online Piracy Act. But many oppose the Act—and you should too. If it becomes law, as one Congresswoman exclaimed, it “would mean the end of the internet as we know it.” Similarly, Internet companies like Googlei and Facebooki also openly oppose it. The Act even prompted online protests by Tumblr, Reddit and Firefox. Why do so many oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act, and why should you be concerned? Read our coverage to find out.

»

Net Neutrality Rules: Illogical logic governs what ISPs can block

Dan Terzian's picture
Submitted by Dan Terzian on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 15:06

Net Neutrality Illogical logic thumbnail

As we recently discussed, the FCC’s new Net Neutrality rules forbid Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking access to certain materials. These rules make clear that “fixed broadband” ISPs (AKA cable and DSL Internet providers) cannot block access to lawful materials. But, illogically, whether they can block access to unlawful materials is not at all clear.

»

Is the gatekeeper model of information access the new normal?

Submitted by Hannah Lowe on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 16:31

On the surface, gatekeepers can look like new services enabling communication with the world around us. However, gatekeepers like Apple or Youtube, whether acting deliberately, recklessly, arbitrarily, or incompetently, can pose significant hurdles to independent creators. 

»

The FCC's Net Neutrality Rules: A tale of two internets

Dan Terzian's picture
Submitted by Dan Terzian on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 10:29

Support Net Neutrality - shared under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0 license

The FCCi's rules regulating Network Neutrality split the Internet. No more is it the Internet, singular; it’s the Internets, plural. Or more precisely, it’s the two Internets: The wired and the wireless. And the new rules leave the latter virtually unprotected. With the rules soon to come into affect this fall, and public interest and industry groups aligning for lawsuits, here's what the fight is all about.

»

September Newsletter: Success stories, challenging AT&T, and Blogworld 2011

Submitted by New Media Rights on Thu, 09/08/2011 - 09:40

Our September newsletter brings news of success stories fighting DMCAi abuse, a grant awarded by the California Consumer Protection Foundation, and our continuing efforts to stop the AT&T-Tmobile merger. 

You can also catch us in person at Media Law in the Digital Age in October, a conference coproduced by Harvard Berkman Center's Digital Media Law Project and the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University, as well as Blogworld 2011 in LA in November.

»

New Media Rights files Reply Comments in the AT&T - T-mobile merger review at the California Public Utiltities Commission

art neill's picture
Submitted by art neill on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 08:36

AT&T T-mobile merger

New Media Rights and its affiliates Utility Consumers' Action Network and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse filed Reply Comments to the California Public Utilities Commission investigation into the AT&T - T-mobile merger.  After attending the innovation and consumer workshops, and reading a mountain of additional paperwork, we're more convinced than ever that the CPUC should recommend denial of the merger.

We talk about specific reasons why in our comments, and also suggest that in the event the Commission does choose to recommend to the FCCi to approve with the merger, some significant conditions should be placed in California.

»

New Media Rights files Petition to Deny the AT&T - T-mobile Merger at the FCC

Submitted by New Media Rights on Wed, 06/01/2011 - 11:08

New Media Rights, its parent organization Utility Consumers' Action Network, and its affiliated project Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, have filed a petition to deny with the Federal Communications Commission. 

Our petition makes clear the FCCi must investigate AT&T's assumptions and claims carefully, and that on balance, the merger is not in the public interest of America's wireless consumers.  The merger's negative affect on innovation, access to the internet, customer service quality, prices, service availability, and consumer privacy are all discussed.

Read the full filing by clicking here.

»

New Media Rights at the National Conference for Media Reform

Submitted by New Media Rights on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 12:41

Art and Mera are attending the National Media Reform Conference this weekend in Boston, MA. We look forward to sharing the work we have done offering free legal resources and fighting to improve and modernize media policy. Art will be on the panel Copyright, Copyleft, CopyCenter: Can Copyright and Remix Culture Co-exist? and Mera will be an online panelist for two of the main plenaries. Read more to see how you can be involved!

»

Sample Platform for Candidates Committed to an Open Internet

Submitted by New Media Rights on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 14:44

Regular People Use Library Computers for Internet EVERY DAY

It's election season, so here's a sample platform for candidates for Congress to show support for an open internet:

»

Data portability policies to ensure and open and competitive internet - an idea whose time has come?

art neill's picture
Submitted by art neill on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 15:19

Data Portability Icon - CC-BY 2.0

I recently shared the concept of developing data portability policies, standards, and best practices as a potential project for New Media Rights' Drumbeat San Diego event, and as project that could fit within Mozilla's larger Drumbeat initiative fostering projects that celebrate and ensure and open web.

This project begins with the concept that user choice, and user control over their experience, should remain a distinguishing feature of the open internet.

To maintain a healthy competition amongst online services heavily reliant on user-submitted data, it will become increasingly important to make sure user data is easily portable. This will help ensure that popular services make changes according to the interests of their users, and that new services can compete on the basis of their merits and usability, without artificial barriers to competition. Keeping data in the hands of users, rather than allowing confusing legal and technological techniques to lock upconsumer data, will help ensure an open and competitive internet.

»