Emily Kirschenheuter

Staff: 

Student Fellow

Joined NMR in: 

May 2022
Emily is a second-year student at California Western School of Law. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in broadcast journalism. Prior to law school, she worked as the Executive Producer of Digital at a television news station in San Francisco.
 
She’s thrilled to merge her passions for digital media and law while working at New Media Rights. She enjoys working with artists and creators to help protect their work and further their creative visions. While in law school, she works as a Teaching Fellow for Contracts and is a member of the Sports and Entertainment Law Society. In her free time, she enjoys trying out new restaurants around San Diego and spending quality time with her cat, Honey. 

SDCE Presentation 1/11/23

New Media Rights Assistant Director Erika Lee spoke with students in the Business Growth class at SDCCD about common legal issues that startups and new businesses should be thinking about in the early stages. 

Topics covered included common areas where it's easy to make a misstep, like with copyright and contracts that you might want to enter into. In addition, we talked about different moments where it might be a good time to reach out to an attorney for assistance. 

Legal Considerations for Startups

 

This presentation was made possible in part by the Rose Foundation.

 

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Aljona Begaj

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

January 2023

Aljona is a second-year student at California Western School of Law. Before attending law school, Aljona received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Texas at Austin. While attending U.T., Aljona was involved with fundraising for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Austin. Through CASA, she saw the benefits of advocacy and the importance of having access to justice.

Aljona joined NMR to continue providing legal access through pro bono work while enabling creators to protect their intellectual property.

Aljona currently serves as Treasurer of the Entertainment and Sports Law Society and the Public Interest Law Foundation at California Western.

Zahra Ahmed

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

January 2023
 
Zahra is a second-year law student at California Western School of Law. Prior to attending law school, Zahra received her B.A. from the University of California, Davis in Political Science. While obtaining her undergraduate degree at Davis, she was involved with building classrooms and educational programs for Syrian refugee kids in Lebanon. In her first year of law school, Zahra received a Diversity Fellowship through the San Diego Bar Association and received recognition in the San Diego Lawyer Magazine. Currently at law school, she is involved in the Sports and Entertainment Law Society and Diversity Student Committee.

From Here: A story about an international generation's fight to redefine what it means to belong

New Media Right is proud to have worked on FROM HERE, a documentary film by Christina Antonakos-Wallace that follows four young people who represent the future of global citizenry. Filmed over the better part of a decade in two of the world’s largest immigration countries–the U.S. and Germany–FROM HERE captures an international generation’s fight for belonging in an era of rising nationalism. 

Set in Berlin and New York, FROM HERE interweaves the stories of Tania, Miman, Sonny and Akim – artists and activists raised in the Global North to parents from the Global South. The film accompanies them as they move from their 20’s into their 30’s, facing major turning points: fighting for citizenship, creating a family, surviving violence, and finding creative expression. Beautifully shot over the course of ten years, the film captures their struggle to define belonging for themselves in societies increasingly hostile to their existence.

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 had an excellent experience working with New Media Rights on assessing the Fair Use of archival and found media in our film FROM HERE,” says director Christina Antonakos-Wallace. “Erika and the team were incredibly detail oriented, willing to help us problem-solve our Fair Use issues, and supportive of our work as independent filmmakers in a challenging landscape. I am incredibly grateful that NMR exists as a resource not only for filmmakers but for the benefit of the wider public.”

To learn more about the film, you can visit the FROM HERE website.

Learn more about our services for filmmakers here.

 

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

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Our 2022 Accomplishments

Giving Tuesday is here! Please take a moment now and make a donation.

In 2022, New Media Rights worked hard to provide important legal services to hundreds of artists, creators, and innovators throughout the world. We are happy to be back working in person and in our new office space on the California Western School of Law campus! 

This year we are particularly grateful for a $33,300 grant from the City of San Diego’s Economic Development Department to support our work with local San Diego small businesses and tech startups. A couple of years ago, the pandemic halted funding from this long-standing grant, so we are thrilled that the City of San Diego can now continue to support our work with the local community!

Please take a few moments to donate now to ensure that the essential legal services that we provide to hundreds of artists, creators and innovators throughout the world continue to exist.

With your support, we've done this and more 2022: 
  • Cited multiple times in the Copyright Office’s 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. 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.

  • New Media Rights also separately participated in a comment to the Copyright Office on behalf of law school clinics about the new CCB proceedings. The law clinicians’ comments raised a number of challenges with relying heavily or solely on law school clinics to provide legal support for clients with CCB matters.

  • Included in the Los Angeles Press Club’s list, “Legal Hotlines and Resources for Journalists in California,” for our work with digital-focused journalism legal issues, such as copyright and trademark issues, privacy policies, DMCA notices and content takedowns and other First Amendment issues.  

  • Featured in the new edition of California Legal History, the Journal of the California Supreme Court Historical Society, which is edited by Selma Moidel Smith, board member of the California Supreme Court Historical Society, and a champion of experiential legal education for nearly eight decades. Executive Director Art Neill wrote an article for the journal that covers our client, education, and policy impact. 

  • Provided consultations and legal services to individuals, projects and startups engaging in and developing web monetization technology under a $20,000 grant from the Grant for the Web

  • Received a $33,300 grant from the City of San Diego Economic Development Department to support our work with local San Diego small businesses.

  • Began a 3-year, $150,000 grant with the Rose Foundation related to consumer rights and education with consumer technology.

  • Completed a one year, $25,000 grant with San Diego based Prebys Foundation, supporting San Diego artists and creatives.

  • Continued our partnership with the San Diego Miramar College Regional Entrepreneurship Center (REC) to provide legal workshops and consultation sessions to early-stage startups.

  • Offered free 30-minute legal consultations to startups and entrepreneurs at March Mingle

  • Provided legal services to filmmakers seeking legal advice related to their social impact films and projects, including films about the bravery of and challenges faced by Detroit firefighters, the influence of immigrant family heritage on coping with loneliness and loss, how healthcare workers at a retirement community coped with the Covid-19 pandemic, San Diego Filipino artists and innovators, immigrant families redefining belonging in an era of rising nationalism, and how storytelling can be used as a tool for healing in the face of loss, trauma, and uncertainty. 

  • Reached the 2000th sale of our book Don’t Panic :) A Legal Guide (in plain English) for Small Businesses and Creative Professionals. Courses nationwide now use Don't Panic as part of their coursework, from UCSD, to Berklee College of Music, San Diego City College, Rochester Institute of Technology, San Diego State University, and more! You can get your copy of Don’t Panic today

  • Brought our expertise to the community with presentations and workshops at San Diego City College, San Diego Miramar College Regional Entrepreneurship Center (REC), California State University Northridge, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Champlain College.

In 2023 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. 

Please take a few moments to donate now. Even if a donation isn't feasible at this time, we would appreciate if you could take a moment to tell others about our work on social media, so that we can connect with some of the people who need us the most!

We wish you a happy holiday season and thank you for your support!

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Event: Legal Considerations for Startups at the REC Innovation Lab

New Media Rights will be at the REC Innovation Lab at San Diego Miramar College this week! Assistant Director Erika Lee and Student Fellow Jackie Taitano-Johnson will be speaking about copyright, contracts and other legal considerations that startups should be thinking about. We'll be focusing on common areas where it can be easy to make mistakes, and talk about ways that you can prevent some of these common missteps early on. We'll also talk about moments where it's probably time to reach out to a lawyer along the way. 

This presentation is made possible with support from the City of San Diego Economic Development Department. 

Where: REC Innovation Lab (the event is also available over Zoom if you RSVP) 

When: October 5, 2022 at 7pm.

For more information about the workshop and how to RSVP, visit the workshop's Eventbrite page.

About the REC Innovation Lab

The Regional Entrepreneurship Center – REC Innovation Lab is a startup incubator on the campus of San Diego Miramar College focused on helping entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds to launch scalable, high-growth startups that use technology to solve problems. Learn more about the REC Innovation Lab by visiting their website. 

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Karla Sasing

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

August 2022
 
Karla is a second-year law student at California Western School of Law. Prior to attending law school, she received her B.A. from the University of California, Davis in Political Science. While obtaining her undergraduate degree, Karla was involved in the International Rescue Committee, an immigration non-profit assisting Special Immigrant Visa refugees resettling in the greater Sacramento region, and local political campaigns for homeless youth. During law school, Karla is involved as the President of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association and Moot Court Honors Board. 

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