Event: March Mingle 2020

Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash

Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash

New Media Rights will be at March Mingle! We'll be providing free 30-minute consultation sessions at March Mingle on March 25th. Come talk to New Media Rights about your copyright and trademark concerns, contracts, and other legal issues you might encounter as a startup or entrepreneur.

These consultations are made possible in part by the City of San Diego Economic Development Department.
 

When: March 25th at 7pm

Where: JULEP Venue, 1735 Hancock St, San Diego, CA 92101 

About March Mingle

March Mingle is San Diego’s largest annual startup and tech networking event. From the March Mingle website: "Since 2004, March Mingle has brought together San Diego’s finest technologists from local technical user groups for a night of socializing and camaraderie. This is our 16th March Mingle and we are deeply grateful to our loyal attendees who have made March Mingle a sell-out for 8 years running.

We’d like to extend a warm welcome to new Minglers, and encourage you to help us foster our growing local community, and local innovation, which is one of the things that makes this city such a fine place to live."

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Event: Tech Con Southern California 2020

On Saturday, January 25, New Media Rights was at TechCon Southern California! We gave free consultations and talked to local San Diego tech industry folks about our services in the Playground Exhibit. Held at the Sony North America HQ, TechCon brought together renowned industry executives, innovators, researchers, technologists and investors, who highlighted the depth and breadth of the Southern California technology ecosystem, particularly in San Diego. 

Thanks to New Media Rights Student Fellows Roarke Catubig, Sofia De La Rocha, Gracie Pollard, and Robin Kilgore, who all had the opportunity to participate in providing consultations to local entrepreneurs. 

Gracie Pollard had this to say about the event: "Going to TechCon was such a rewarding experience! I was able to meet creative individuals, listen to speakers about predictions of the future in tech, and even assist with client consultations. The consultations were fun because we were able to explain legal impacts on the client's tech goals and how to work with those impacts proactively to avoid problems in the future."

You can learn more about Tech Con here: https://www.techconsocal.com/

These consultations were made possible in part by the City of San Diego Economic Development Department. 

 

 

 

  

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Carlos Gomez

Staff: 

Student Fellow

Joined NMR in: 

January 2020

Carlos is a native of San Diego. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California San Diego, where he majored in Political Science with a concentration in Public Law and minored in Communications. Carlos currently serves as the Executive Editor of Notes and Comments for the California Western International Law Journal. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games, reading, and learning as much as he can about Esports and new technologies. In the future, Carlos hopes to grow his Esports company and work in the Esports field as a lawyer or as a business owner.

Stephanie Papayanis

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

January 2020

Stephanie is currently a second-year student at California Western School of Law. Before law school, she got her B.S. degree in Business-Marketing at San Diego State University in 2016. Throughout college, she held several marketing internships for small businesses. After graduation, Stephanie worked for two years at a small airplane leasing company, where she assisted with aircraft transactions and marketing. Stephanie's internships and post-graduate work experience gave her invaluable insight into working with small businesses.

During law school, Stephanie worked for the San Diego County Office of the Public Defender. There, she managed her own caseload of clients and gained experience in public service.

Stephanie will graduate law school in April 2021, and is hoping to work in public service. Some areas of law she is interested in are environmental law, public interest, and entertainment law. She hopes to spread awareness on environmental concerns and is looking to pair her passion for the environment with media and entertainment law.

Harleen Singh’s film Drawn Together challenges racial, gender, and religious stereotyping in America

 

New Media Rights' team was proud to work on Harleen Singh’s recent film, Drawn Together.  With a lively backdrop of superheroes, comic books, and animated comics, Drawn Together: Comics, Diversity and Stereotypes brings together three talented artists—a Sikh, a woman, and an African American—who are challenging the racial, gender, and religious stereotyping currently endemic in America through their work.

This documentary has been selected in over 51 International film festivals and is the winner of 9 major awards including "BEST Documentary", "Freedom Award" and "Jason D Mak award for Social Justice".

The documentary provides the rare opportunity to explore the subjects of race, gender, and religion stereotyping through the universally popular medium of comic books and cartoons. Drawn Together boldly encourages viewers to unlearn stereotyping, look beyond the obvious, and confront media prejudices—all through an uncommon and inherently engaging everyday source.

“New Media Rights provided legal guidance for my film during a difficult situation. I found them to be extremely responsive, knowledgeable, experienced, honest and highly trustworthy. They guided me every step of the way and gave me personal attention. I went back to them for another work a year later as well. I would highly recommend Art and his team to anyone seeking legal representation that is honest, detailed, fair, timely and would keep your unique needs at the forefront.”

- Harleen Singh, Director & Filmmaker

This testimonial does not constitute a guarantee,warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your legal matter.

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Adios Amor - New Media Rights helps bring the story of farm worker's advocate Maria Moreno to PBS

New Media Rights attorneys and California Western School of Law students recently worked on Adios Amor, a powerful documentary by Jane Greenberg and Laurie Coyle. 

In Adios Amor, the discovery of lost photographs sparks the search for a hero that history forgot—Maria Moreno, a migrant mother driven to speak out by her twelve children’s hunger. Years before Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta launched the United Farm Workers, Maria picked up the only weapon she had—her voice—and became an outspoken leader in an era when women were relegated to the background. The first farm worker woman in America to be hired as a union organizer, Maria’s story was silenced and her legacy buried—until now.

Documentaries often need a variety of legal services, from hiring a crew, to copyright, fair use and licensing, to distribution agreements. New Media Rights works with a variety of documentary and fictional video creators to overcome the legal hurdles to making their productions a reality.

“We are grateful to New Media Rights for their review and Fair Use opinion letter of our documentary film. The clinic stuck with the review despite our extended timeline. Staff was extremely knowledgeable, thorough and professional and saved us money. Our E&O underwriter accepted the review without question. We would gladly work with New Media Rights on future projects and highly recommend the clinic. 

-Laurie Coyle, Director / Producer 

-Jane Greenberg, Co-producer

Executive Director Art Neill said "New Media Rights is proud to have helped on the legal side to ensure that Maria Moreno’s story reaches the public. The film tells a largely unheard but important story about a mother and advocate who played an important role in advancing farmer worker’s rights."

New Media Rights student fellow Alexandra Inman (a current 3L) worked with Executive Director Art Neill on this project. Alexandra had this to say about the project.

"As someone who aspires to work in entertainment law, it is a great experience to work through a fair use review for a documentary filmmaker. It's wonderful to practice on something that is often discussed in an interview in entertainment law and is not a common experience for a law student. Working alongside a filmmaker as they are turning their ideas into a final product to be enjoyed by a broad audience is an exhilarating experience that encourages practice of many of the client engagement skills we learn throughout law school while actively advocating for the creative ideas of our client." - Alexandra Inman, law student at California Western School of Law

This testimonial does not constitute a guarantee,warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your legal matter.

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Our 2019 Accomplishments!

Whether you’ve joined us as a Student or Open Internet Defender, we’re stronger than ever thanks to support from individuals like you!

If you haven’t become a Supporter, we need your support more than ever this year. Please consider joining our community of supporters by making a donation and help us continue to fulfill our mission to:

  • Provide free and dramatically reduced fee one-to-one legal services to underserved creators and innovators that need specialized help with Internet, intellectual property, media, and technology law
  • Defend the Open Internet and push for badly needed copyright reform.
  • Create high quality legal educational materials and to educate the next generation of lawyers.

With your support we’ve done this and more in 2019:

  • Received $40,000 grant from the City of San Diego Economic Development Department to support our work with local San Diego small businesses.
  • Served clients working in healthcare, consumer technology, robotics, e-commerce, software, and nonprofit sectors, who had complex intellectual property, contract, and privacy law issues. This year we also worked with various creative professionals, including social media influencers, videogame developers, educational media services, and even podcasts, like Device.
  • Provided legal services to filmmakers and nonprofits seeking legal advice related to their social impact films and projects, including films about: the effects of gender stereotyping in sports, WWII military heroism, racial and political conflicts related to birthright citizenship laws, cycles of activism and social change throughout history, sexual harassment in the workplace, gentrification within local neighborhood, racial and religious stereotyping, and voter suppression laws. In one specific example, we helped to bring the story of the important but relatively unknown farm workers' rights advocate Maria Moreno to PBS.
  • Joined the Free Expression Legal Network, a nationwide coalition of law school clinics, academics, and practitioners focused on promoting and protecting free speech, free press, and the free flow of information to an informed and engaged citizenry.
  • Spoke to Bloomberg Law about copyright, trademark, and trade dress in a recent dispute that involved the NBA, the Brooklyn Nets, Coogi, and Biggie Smalls; Money about the Vine compilation copyright wars; the San Francisco Chronicle and Business Insider about the new California bill that sets a stricter test to classify workers as independent contractors; and Bloomberg Law about the issues involved with trying to claim copyright protection over historical information in a Hamilton exhibit.
  • Filed comments with the Copyright Office advocating for modernization of the copyright registration system, addressing key issues with the current options available for registering videos, issues with the online registration system interface, and the usefulness of the public copyright catalogue.
  • Wrote an article about modernizing the copyright registration system for videos, which has been accepted for publication in the  Fall 2019 University of Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal!
  • Received a $40,000 grant from the Rose Foundation to support our work providing legal services and educational resources to individuals creating, working with and encountering consumer technology, and compliance with truthful online advertising practices.
  • Partnered with the Community Law Project to present a media and privacy law presentation at Hoover High School in San Diego, including topics like deceptive advertising online, data collection laws like the Children’s Online Privacy Act, and how social media sites comply with these laws.
  • Launched a new series of online videos for attorneys to receive continuing legal education with ALM, and West Publishing, one of the largest legal publishers in the world. This will also serve as an additional revenue stream for the program.
  • Reached our 1,300th sale of our book Don’t Panic :) A Legal Guide (in plain English) for Small Businesses and Creative Professionals. This year, classes at UCSD, Berkelee College of Music, and the Rochester Institute of Technology started using Don’t Panic as part of their coursework, which brings the number of courses that use Don’t Panic to over 10! You can get your copy of Don’t Panic today
  • Signed on to an amicus brief supporting keeping the law free for all to access and use, and ensuring that private parties do not interfere with public access to the documents that govern our daily lives.
  • Launched a new guide that addresses copyright use while teaching in the classroom, walking through some important exemptions under copyright law for certain performances and displays of copyrighted works in the classroom (and certain limited online learning situations). 
  • Brought our legal knowledge to the community with presentations and workshops at the Bioneers 2019 Conference, KPBS Explore Local Content Program, Arts for Learning San Diego’s Kickstart the Arts, SD Film Week, California Lawyers for the Arts, the SD Media Pros, Otis College of Art and Design, San Diego Mesa College, and San Diego State University.

In 2020 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 fighting to preserve net neutrality.

 

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Derek Diemer

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

September 2019
Derek Diemer grew up with a passion for the film and television industry. As a philosophy student, he was interested in how language and media shape the way humans think and perceive reality. In law school, he was drawn towards intellectual property, entertainment law, and tax law, and has an interest in how the law may be used to improve the film industry in the modern age. At New Media Rights, Derek is excited to work with creative individuals, gain valuable experience, and explore new aspects of the law.
 

September 2019 Newsletter: New Media Rights Receives $40,000 Grant from the City of San Diego!

Here's what we've been up to lately:

Welcome to Our Fall 2019 Team! Media and Privacy law at Hoover High

This fall we welcomed our new team, including 5 returning Student Fellows. Over 100 students have worked with us over the years serving internet users, artists, and small businesses. To our team both current and past, thank you!

NMR Receives $40,000 Grant from the City of San Diego  

We’ve received a $40,000 grant from the City of San Diego Economic Development Department to support our work with local San Diego small businesses. Last year we received $20,000, so we are excited to share that this year’s funding will increase our ability to provide services to more local businesses! Thank you to the City of San Diego for their continued support, we've been a proud partner for 8 years now!

New Guide: Copyright and the Classroom

We have a new guide available that addresses copyright use while teaching in the classroom. Copyright and the Classroom: Using Copyrighted Material in Classrooms and Distance Learning walks through some important exemptions under copyright law for certain performances and displays of copyrighted works in the classroom (and certain limited online learning situations) that would otherwise be considered infringement. 

CLP and NMR Team Up to Talk to Local High School Students about Privacy and Social Media

In April, NMR and the CWSL Community Law Project partnered to present a media and privacy law presentation at Hoover High School in San Diego. We spoke to 3 freshman classes about some of the laws that control deceptive advertising online, data collection laws like the Children's Online Privacy Act, and how social media sites comply with these important laws. We also got to talk about how some artificial intelligence technologies learn from the content that people post online. 

Thanks to Hoover High School and CLP for having us! This presentation was made possible in part by the Rose Foundation.

NMR participates in KPBS workshops for local San Diego filmmakers and podcasters

In August, we visited KPBS for the Explore Local Content Program Orientation to talk about legal issues that occur throughout all stages of film and podcast production, music licensing, copyright and fair use. The KPBS Explore Local Content Project is a collaboration with local producers to create and expand on local content that connects audiences with shared experiences, and reflects the diverse community in San Diego. This workshop was supported in part by the City of San Diego Economic Development Department.

Upcoming Publication in the University of Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal

Our paper, Copyright Registration Modernization: Group Registration of Videos, has been accepted for publication in the University of Texas Fall 2019 Intellectual Property Law Journal. The paper explores how current video registration options are ineffective and cost-prohibitive for online video creators, and proposes opening a rulemaking with the Copyright Office to establish group registration of published videos (which is currently not permitted).

We Joined the Free Expression Legal Network!

We are thrilled to announce that we joined the Free Expression Legal Network! The Free Expression Legal Network is a nationwide coalition of law school clinics, academics, and practitioners focused on promoting and protecting free speech, free press, and the free flow of information to an informed and engaged citizenry. At its launch, FELN includes 22 law school clinics that provide students hands-on experience representing journalists and documentary filmmakers, among others. We are proud to be counted among them!

Supporting journalists and nonprofit news organizations has always been an important part of our work. Journalists face many of the same intellectual property, privacy, and media law issues that challenge other creatives and entrepreneurs. We look forward to being a supportive member of the network and utilizing its resources to better serve our clients.

Learn more about our work with FELN here.

  

Staff Attorney Erika Lee (left) and Student Fellow Alexandra Inman (right) at KPBS

Top right: Media and Data Privacy Law at Hoover High School

All the best,

Art, Shaun, Erika and the entire New Media Rights team

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