New Media Rights Receives Grant to Support Web Monetization Innovators!

New Media Rights recently received a $20,000 grant from Grant for the Web to support Grant for the Web recipients and others on the boundaries of web monetization with legal services. This grant is a continuation of our work with web monetization innovators last year, and we are thrilled to be continuing our work with the Grant for the Web community!

The grant is a partnership with Grant for the Web, a program supported by the Mozilla Foundation, Creative Commons, and Coil. Grant for the Web believes that a healthy internet needs openness and opportunity, and that it cannot be built on the backs of individuals’ security and privacy. The funds are intended to support an ecosystem that will challenge the web’s most urgent issues: loss of privacy, centralization of power, and inequalities in online participation. 

Many of the grantees are working to improve and innovate in the Web Monetization space. "Web Monetization" generally describes a system where web traffic is converted into revenue. Right now, advertising, paywalls, subscription-based services, and data mining dominate the web monetization landscape, which often leads to privacy violations, data secrutiy breaches, and exposure to viruses and malware. Grantees of the Grant for the Web are working to create better business models for monetizing content and cultivate a healthier web monetization ecosystem.

We will provide Grant for the Web grantees the option to receive pro bono legal support to encourage the safe and wide distribution of their content or technology projects.

You can check out some of the other Grant for the Web grantees and their projects here. If you're working on a web monetization project, and have legal questions about your work, please contact us via the contact form on our website.

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Ryann Cahill

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

January 2022

Ryann was born and raised in Denver, CO. She graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a BS in Architectural Engineering. After undergrad, she moved to Boston, MA where she worked for five years as a mechanical engineer and in engineering sales. Ryann is currently a second-year student at California Western School of Law. She has a strong interest in intellectual property and patent law, as well as business law and contracts. Ryann also enjoys filmmaking and video editing, so she is excited to bring her experience to New Media Rights and help creators protect their content. Ryann loves the San Diego weather and in her free time likes to snorkel in La Jolla and golf in Balboa Park. 

Christy Hsu

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

January 2022

Christy graduated from the University of California San Diego with a BS in Biochemistry: Pharmacological Science and a Minor in Business in 2018. She worked at Bristol Myers Squibb as a research biologist until entering law school at California Western School of Law in 2020.

As a second-year law student at CWSL, she is currently a member of the Moot Court Honors Board and International Law Journal. She also serves as the Student Intellectual Property Law Association's President and Asian Pacific American Law Student Association's Event Coordinator.

Outside of school, she participates in the CWSL Community Law Project, which aims to provide free legal services to the underprivileged community in San Diego. She has been selected as the 2021 San Diego County Bar Association Diversity Fellow. 

Christy hopes to leverage her skills as a bilingual scientist and a law student to "fight for the things that [she] care[s] about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join."–Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Rachel Newman

Staff: 

Student Fellow

Joined NMR in: 

January 2022
Rachel was born and raised in Orange County, California, and she is a current 2L at California Western School of Law. Prior to law school, Rachel graduated from the University of Oregon with a Political Science major and with minors in Legal Studies and Philosophy. While in law school, Rachel has worked for American Healthcare REIT, where she reviewed contracts and wrote memorandums for the in-house counsel. Rachel has also been involved in the California Western Community Law Project, and she is a Teaching Fellow for Contracts, as well as an Honors Instructor for Legal Skills.
 
Rachel has always been interested in the legal field, but she also has a creative side. She hopes to marry these two passions when she begins her career as an attorney, and she is very excited about the opportunity to utilize both passions through New Media Rights. Helping others carry out their creative vision is something that she is very passionate about.
 
Rachel lives in Mission Valley with five roommates, two of them being feline (Pancake and Eleanor). Rachel loves trying new restaurants in San Diego, going to live theater, watching Netflix, and curling up with a good book.

Our 2021 Accomplishments

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

This year New Media Rights continued to meet the challenges of the global pandemic by providing our services and law clinic online. 2021 brought challenges, but we also had victories along the way. We are glad to now be working in a new space on the California Western School of Law campus, and continuing to serve our community. 

This year we are particularly grateful for a $25,000 grant from the Conrad Prebys Foundation to support our work with creatives and creative organizations in San Diego, as well as further support via a $20,000 Grant for the Web from Mozilla and Creative Commons.

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 in 2021: 

  • Continuing our participation since 2009, NMR staff and California Western law students worked on behalf of creators and consumers to maintain three key exemptions to the DMCA Anti-Circumvention provisions. These exemptions help ensure that documentary filmmakers and noncommercial video creators can access materials in fair use for their work, and that consumers can install the apps and software of their choice on their smartphones. On October 27, 2021 the Copyright Office revealed the results of their 2021 Anti-Circumvention Rulemaking. All three of the exemptions NMR petitioned to renew have been renewed, and we are cited 8 times in the new recommendation.
  • Launched a new guide about advertising law for businesses and nonprofits that discusses key advertising laws and regulations as they apply to a wide range of industries.
  • Received $25,000 grant from the Conrad Prebys Foundation to support our work with creatives and creative organizations in San Diego who need specialized internet, arts, and media law expertise.
  • Filed comments with the Copyright Office on the rulemaking regarding the initiation of proceedings and procedures related to claims brought before the Copyright Claims Board (CCB) under the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act.
  • Provided legal services to filmmakers and podcasters seeking legal advice related to their social impact films and projects, including films and podcasts about: a story of survival and heroism in the face of an avalanche, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of young students, an Olympics Gymnastics controversy, San Diego’s ties with the history of skateboarding, and cycles of activism and social change throughout history. 
  • Received $20,000 grant from Grant for the Web to support our work with individuals and startups working with and developing new web monetization technology.
  • Reached the 1900th 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
  • Contributed to the first Me2B Alliance recommendation, “The Attributes for Safe and Respectful Me2B Commitments,” which establishes a high-level set of data use and privacy standards that technology makers can commit to and apply to their new technology. 
  • Continued our partnership with the San Diego Miramar College Regional Entrepreneurship Center (REC) to provide legal workshops and consultation sessions to early-stage startups.
  • Provided consultations and legal services to projects engaging in and developing web monetization technology under a grant from the Grant for the Web.
  • Brought our expertise to the community with presentations and workshops at KPBS, the 5th Annual Legal Ethics Conference hosted by California Western School of Law, California State University Northridge, and Otis College of Art and Design.
  • Spoke to the Washington Post about Warner Bros.' successful efforts to stop a Maryland brewery attempting to register a trademark for the name of its beer, "Surrender Dorothy" (which depicted a yellow brick road passing under a DC area beltway overpass, with the DC-area Mormon temple depicted in the background), which was a reference to iconic Washington-DC area beltway graffiti.
  • Contributed to a report from Me2B Alliance that exposed hidden functionalities that allowed mobile apps used in schools to send data to third parties without proper disclosure in 60% of the apps tested. The report received significant press attention, including a write up by the Washington Post.
  • Continued to grow our CLE partnership with ALM and West LegalEdCenter producing new CLE videos in our niche practice areas.

In 2022 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 working to ensure fair processes in the CCB proceedings.

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NMR supports wins for filmmakers, video creators, and consumers in the 2021 DMCA Anti-Circumvention Rulemaking

Every three years the Copyright Office meets to reconsider exemptions to the DMCA Anti-Circumvention provisions. These exemptions are critical to ensuring creators and consumers’ ability to bypass technological protection measures on copyrighted works, allowing them to make fair use of works in a variety of circumstances.  Continuing our participation since 2009, NMR staff and California Western law students submitted worked on behalf of creators and consumers to maintain three key exemptions. These exemptions help ensure that documentary filmmakers and noncommercial video creators can access materials in fair use for their work, and that consumers can install the apps and software of their choice on their smartphones.On October 27, 2021 the Copyright Office revealed the results of their 2021 Anti-Circumvention Rulemaking. All three of the exemptions NMR petitioned to renew have been renewed, and we are cited 8 times in the new recommendation.

Former California Western student Carlos Gomez, who worked on the renewal petitions, had this to say:

"New Media Right’s policy work is essential to ensuring that small creators and entrepeneurs are not bogged down by overly-restrictive copyright laws. While it is imperative that the work of creators is protected, it should not come at the price of restricting innovation. In renewing these exemptions, the Copyright Office is taking a step in the right direction."

Here is the Registrar's recommendation citing New Media Rights. We want to thank former student and California Western alum Carlos Gomez for his work on this project.

We're proud to have been a part of making sure these vital exemptions were renewed. 

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Greer Houston

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

August 2021

Greer Houston was born and raised in Austin, Texas. She is a current 3L at California Western School of Law. Prior to law school, she graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Finance and a minor in Textiles & Apparel. Greer’s passion for combining creativity and business drove her to study intellectual property law. Last summer, she was an in-house legal intern for Taoglas, a leading multinational technology company.

During law school, Greer joined the Student Intellectual Property Law Association and the Women’s Law Caucus. She is currently a Senior Lead Articles Editor for California Western Law Review.  

Greer lives in North Park with her seven-year-old dachshund, Nala. Outside her studies, Greer enjoys cooking, walking Nala, and doing fun circuit workouts from social media.  

Mayra Hernandez

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

August 2021

Mayra Hernandez was born in Mexico City and has lived in San Diego most of her life. She currently serves as Intramural Athletics Director for Cal Western’s Student Bar Association. Before coming to law school, she obtained a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics. After which she worked on research in applied mathematics and taught mathematics from elementary on to college.  

In law school Mayra has helped trademark applicants as they navigate the trademarking process. Mayra has written about virtual worlds and is interested in cryptoart. Not an artist by trade, she loves to see the creative process unfold. Art being older than written language it’s so intertwines with our humanity that it can’t but also in simple and complex ways touch notions of how societies are organized and connect. As new media forms mature our own legal systems mature and evolve alongside, while at the same time offering our science and technology vitality in new expressive outlets. 

In her free time. Mayra enjoys hanging out, traveling, hiking, and being in the outdoors. She loves trying out new recipes. Being mostly vegetarian for the past decade has given her new opportunities to re-invent old favorite recipes or to think of new combinations. Mayra is a certified yoga teacher and can’t wait to go out dancing! 

Maclean Bowers

Staff: 

Student Fellow

Joined NMR in: 

May 2021

I was born and raised in San Diego, CA and I am a 3L at California Western. Prior to law school, I graduated from University of California, Irvine with a BA in Business Administration. Because of my longtime career aspiration of becoming a sports agent, I joined UC Irvine Athletics as a Sports Marketing intern where I was the lead Community Relations intern in strengthening student-athlete presence and influence in Orange County.

During law school, I joined the Entertainment and Sports Law Society and applied my legal skills as a Law Clerk at Aguirre & Severson LLP where I realized how my work can have a profound impact on a client’s interests. My passion for the Sports and Entertainment industry coupled with my passion for creating opportunities for others encouraged me to be a part of New Media Rights in helping small businesses and creators reach their full potential.

I live close to Downtown San Diego with my girlfriend and cat, Dallas (named after the Dallas Cowboys of course!). I enjoy running, conducting sports data research, and watching The Office (I’m a HUGE fan!).

Victoria Minnich

Staff: 

Legal Intern

Joined NMR in: 

May 2021

I was born and raised in San Diego and I am a current 3L at Cal Western. I am currently the Vice President of the Student Intellectual Property Law Association. Prior to law school, I graduated from Cal State San Marcos and later went on to USD to obtain my paralegal certificate. I worked as a paralegal for two years for an employment law firm. During my time there I had the opportunity to help small business owners start their business by helping them incorporate, draft articles of incorporation and meeting minutes. I enjoyed helping people start their dream business and this is where my passion began to want to further help creators and entrepreneurs bring their dreams to life. I am passionate about helping others achieve their dreams and be legally protected in doing so!

I live close to the beach with my husband and two cats (Nala and Julius) and enjoy going outside as much as possible. I enjoy running, hiking, camping, and traveling to new places. I enjoy going to the movies (when they were open) and I am a huge Marvel fan! I look forward to having all the new Marvel movies released soon so that I can go watch them!

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