Here’s a roundup of stories about how companies are looking at fan-made videos that might be of interest:
- Rebecca Tushnet, chair of the OTW’s Legal Committee, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Diary column on the growing atmosphere of acceptance of video mashups and the marketing possibilities they present for companies and their products. She noted, however, that acceptance is coming more quickly from the film and television industries than the music industry. This suggests that fans making music vids are likely to continue having to assert and defend the “fair use” status of their work.
- Another recent news item highlighted an example of the phenomenon Tushnet discussed, when Variety explored the responses of copyright holders to fan use of their material. In this case, the article cites the positive attitude of Hasbro to the many mashups of My Little Pony done by a group of mostly male fans referred to as “bronies.” While Hasbro’s attitude is made clear, there’s no mention of how the music copyright holders see the use of their songs in these “trackjacking” videos. Also lacking from the article is any acknowledgement that this type of fan video has a historical context, or that it falls creatively close to a tradition of work by primarily female fans.
If you’re part of the My Little Pony fandom, create trackjacking videos, or know any stories you can share to help preserve our history related to these topics, why not create some posts on Fanlore? Fanlore is open to contributions by all fans for any and all fandoms.
We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!
Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.