Mission statement & the stories of those we help

New Media Rights offers free assistance for questions that you may have on the following digital rights issues:

How to legally reuse or remix Copyright protected work (fair use, parody, mash-ups, sampling, remix, etc)
Copyright, licensing, trademark, and other legal expertise for internet users
Responding to a DMCA takedown notice or cease and desist letters
Respond to other unfair content takedowns, access limitations, and account terminations
Advising individual smart phone and mobile internet users of their right to control their personal information, including location based information and personal data
Advising individuals smart phone and mobile internet uses about other abuses related to the use of your smartphone, including throttling of broadband internet, problems with pirated mobile apps and other issues.
Counseling with individuals and mobile app developers on user privacy, data aggregation, and trademark issues
Drafting a terms of service agreement or a privacy policy for your website or blog
Advice on things you can do to legally protect yourself as a website operator
Reviewing documentaries and comic books for legal issues
FOIA and Public Records Act requests

Fill out the Contact Us form to request assistance!

New Media Rights also creates how-to and legal guides on these topics thanks to your questions.

We apply the trends that we are seeing in our legal assistance to advocate for improved public interest media policy.

We assist

- filmmakers
- musicians
- journalists
- bloggers
- new media startups
- entrepreneurs
- smart phone users and developers
- all types of artists!

and YOU! Just use our contact form and a real lawyer will contact you promptly to let you know how we can help you.

We want to thank those who make our services possible, particularly our individual donors and the California Consumer Protection Foundation.

So you want to support legal services for independent creators and Internet users? Here's how to do that...

Ways you can support New Media Rights

NMR Stories

Testimonials of some of our clients

Google Deletes "PS Gay Car" - Help get it back online

New Media Rights recently hit a dead-end in an attempt to resolved what seemingly should be a routine issue: a band of hobbyist musicians, Fortress of Attitude, had a Youtube video that got misflagged by an automated Youtube takedown system. They were unfairly accused of violating Youtube's terms of service. Below, Pat Stango of Fortress of Attitude describes the 3+ month process of attempting to get his video human-reviewed and reinstated. Like our work with Jonathan McIntosh, Pat's story highlights area where Youtube's technology, support, and legal department can improve its practices.

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Hello people of the internet,

My name is Pat Stango, and I’m a member of New York City-based comedy group/ rock band “Fortress of Attitude.” Don’t worry, we're not here to plug our upcoming shows or sell you some band merchandise. (Though we DO still have a few hundred T-shirts with our name spelled wrong, if anyone is interested.) Instead we need to let you know about a very difficult situation we’re going through with YouTube/Google regarding a music video being taken down unfairly. WAIT! Don’t leave yet. This situation could totally happen to you too.

On Nov 17, 2012, we uploaded our newest Fortress of Attitude video to YouTube, entitled “PS Gay Car.” You can view a (lo-resolution) version of the video here at Funny or Die.

Read more here...
NMR helps remix artist Jonathan McIntosh fight Lionsgate's Youtube takedown of "Buffy vs. Edward"

A new year brings new battles for independent creators to share their work.

Pop-culture hacker and remix artist Jonathan McIntosh (RebelliousPixels.com) explains in this post how New Media Rights is fighting for him in his battle with Lionsgate over the copyright takedown of his well known Buffy vs. Edward remix video.

New Media Rights is proud to be helping Jonathan fight this battle with Lionsgate over his video. Asserting the right to make fair use of content simply shouldn't be this hard.

It is part of a bigger picture development in the world of online video.
His story, and our experience working with folks one-to-one suggests there are large media companies that intend to blindly monetize every reuse of content, even if it means steamrolling fair use and the freedom of speech.

Read the full story to learn more.

Remember New Media Rights is a non-profit project doing this work on a shoe string budget, so if you support this work please donate now so we can keep advocating for creators like Jonathan!
Geek v Troll: New Media Rights stands up for the underdogs of the Internet

San Diego CityBeat, San Diego's alternative newsweekly, published a great cover story this past week about our work at New Media Rights.

It also has an amazing Street-Fighteresque illustration of a Geek punching a copyright troll. Check it out!

Read the whole story here!
NMR Testimonial: Susan Myrland

Susan Myrland, an internet user, ran in trouble when an unscrupulous advertising company recreated an old personal website of Susan's without permission, and then incorporated spam advertisements on the site. New Media Rights helped Susan respond to the abuse of her personal information and fix the damage this created, here's how.
NMR Testimonial: Michael Colin

Michael Colin is a independent documentary filmmaker. Documentary films often reuse content that already exists, and if that content isn't in the public domain, or licensed, filmmakers sometimes need to rely on fair use under copyright law. New Media Rights helped Michael analyze the Fair Use issues in his film. Here's his testimonial of how we helped him.
NMR Testimonial: Maricar Camaya

New Media Rights' help is available to local San Diego filmmakers as well as media creators across the country. Maricar Camaya is a San Diego filmmaker interested in international gender and sexuality issues. Maricar briefly discusses how New Media Rights helped him:
NMR Testimonial: Dan Newman of Maplight

New Media Rights had the pleasure of working with another great non-profit. Daniel Newman is Co-Founder and Executive Director of MapLight, a nonpartisan nonprofit illuminating the connection between money and politics in unprecedented ways. Mr. Newman briefly discusses how New Media Rights helped Maplight.
New Media Rights protects another blogger from censorship and DMCA abuse

New Media Rights recently protected blogger Michael Petrelis' speech and commentary regarding another blogger who pretended to be a gay Syrian woman living in Damascus.

Mr. Petrelis is just one example of the hundreds of individuals who rely on New Media Rights daily. His story reminds us that we have the right to criticize and comment on the culture that surrounds us.
NMR Testimonial: David Almilli

David Almilli an entrepreneur and the innovator of the Wordsmith App. Below is David's testimony on his experience receiving assistance from New Media Rights, that helped him fight and win against game giant, Hasbro.
NMR Testimonial: Sue Wilson

Sue Wilson needed assistance regarding copyright and fair use. New Media Rights provides resources on copyright law, and may be able to assist you with your copyright and fair use questions, just contact us.