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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!

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Legal and How-to Guides for Citizen Media Creators and Online Publishing

Webtreats Glowing Neon Social Medi Icons by Flikr user webtreats used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license

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Best Practices for Creative Commons attributions - how to attribute works you reuse under a Creative Commons license

Submitted by New Media Rights on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 13:49

Find out how to site or source creative commons work. Creative commons work allows you to share, remix and reuse legally, just make sure to check out what license it is under.

“creative commons” by Flikr user libraryman used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license

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Mi Casa Es Su Casa — But I Set the Rules

Paul Klocko got a surprise in the mail in April: a letter on official stationary from Weston, Wisconsin administrator Dean Zuleger, demanding that Klocko stop posting comments on the web criticizing him.  The letter also asked that Klocko "come out from behind the cloak" and meet Zuleger in person.

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art neill's picture

Veoh triumphs over Universal Music in lawsuit on social media liability, gives lesson in the DMCA safe harbor

Submitted by art neill on Tue, 09/15/2009 - 10:31

"Jump on the Social Media Bandwagon" by Matt Hamm, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 2.0. It is uncertain whether Veoh will be a major player in the future of online video. There is little doubt, however, that it has had a significant role in defining the boundaries of social media liability.

Veoh's victories against IoGroup and Universal Music have helped provide a model for social media and web 2.0 services in protecting themselves from liability.

Veoh's newest triumph is getting the district court to grant summary judgement that it is "entitled to the section 512(c) safe harbor."

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New Media Guides Legal and How-to guides

Welcome to our Legal and How-to resource center.  We hope these guides will help you, the user/creator,  to learn about

  • Rights and laws on the Internet
  • How to use new technologies and social media in your own life
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michael donahue's picture

Trademark holders rush to secure usernames on Facebook

Submitted by michael donahue on Fri, 06/26/2009 - 11:54

Trademark holders are rushing to protect their marks on Facebook as a result of the new "username" feature.  Facebook recently granted all registered users the right to create personalized usernames in the form of URLs (www.facebook.com/username) because it expedites the search process for individuals and businesses.  With the creation of the username, you can now be linked directly to the profile you are looking for instead of wasting time scanning thousands of search results. While it seems the username is a helpful tool, many trademark holders are worried that cybersquatters will jump on this opportunity to wrongfully register their marks. How will the new Facebook policy towards markholders affect legitimate free speech.

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Bring Me his Head and Hands: Unconstitutional Internet Proscription

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EFF Launches TOSBack - A 'Terms of Service' Tracker for Facebook, Google, eBay, and More

San Francisco - "Terms of Service" policies on websites define how Internet businesses interact with you and use your personal information. But most web users don't read these policies -- or understand that the terms are constantly changing. To track these ever-evolving documents, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is launching "TOSBack": a "terms of service" tracker for Facebook, Google, eBay, and other major websites.

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art neill's picture

The AP is going stop bloggers from pirating content (or quoting in fair use for legitimate reasons)

Submitted by art neill on Tue, 06/02/2009 - 15:00

The AP says it is taking aim at "wholesale theft" with new technology that is aimed at targeting reposting of "entire articles." The new technology is supposed to simply flag questionable articles for lawyers and paralegals to then review.

The question is will the new technology be so limited, or will the AP use the technology to follow the same path it took filing DMCA takedown notices falsely characterizing the law regarding the Drudge retort's postings as follows:

"...the use is not fair use simply because the work copied happened to be
a news article and that the use is of the headline and the first few
sentences only ."

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Essential Free and Open Source Software Toolkit

Submitted by New Media Rights on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 16:49
A tool kit full of Free or Open Source software
Open source software has gained popularity because of its effectiveness, flexibility, security, and low cost. By adopting an entirely new philosophical approach to software development and user freedom, open source software empowers you, the downstream user not just to use it to perform a task, but to build upon, adapt, and modify it to fit your needs. In this way thousands of developers and users around the world are able to work to improve the software's effectiveness, flexibility, and security. Join the many people around the world using open source software, a way of life that encourages openness, sharing, community, innovation, and discovery.
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