- The Daily Dot discussed Funimation’s fanart stance with OTW Legal staffer Rebecca Tushnet. “‘[I]t’s notable that there’s no mention of fair use…Fan art can be non-infringing fair use; elements of whether it is fair use include how transformative it is (how much new meaning and message it adds); whether it’s commercial or not; and whether it displaces a market for ‘official’ goods.’ So it doesn’t matter that they’ve declared they won’t be going after commercially sold fanart? Not necessarily, according to Tushnet: ‘It somewhat depends on what they actually do, but they are clearly claiming that fan art is in fact infringing copyright, even if they indicate they usually tolerate it. So I wouldn’t feel very reassured by this statement.'”
- Perhaps JK Rowling’s embrace of her fandom was key in a Fox Sports story about a fan whose fannishness influenced the University of Kentucky 2015 yearbook. “Towles has said that he’s read each book in the series at least seven times and can ‘quote the whole thing,’ referring to the movies. And to take his fandom a step further, he annually celebrates Harry Potter’s mythical birthday on July 31.” The article concluded, “Harry Potter fan or not, you’ve got to appreciate the passion that led to…a yearbook titled ‘Patrick Towles and the Order of Kentucky Football.'”
- The Debrief reported on One Direction’s new charity initiative, Action 1D. “Action1D is part of a brilliant wider campaign called Action/2015 which is all about the fact 2015 is the year loads of global issues begin to get resolved…What do Directioners need to do to save the world? Create pictures, videos, whatever, telling the boys what they want the future of the world to look like. Harry, Niall, Liam and Louis will then help put pressure on our leaders.”
- NPR featured a story on filmmaker Jennifer Nelson who is suing Warner/Chappell Music to make the song ‘Happy Birthday’ available for everyone. “If Nelson and her lawyers win, the song will be in the public domain. ‘I think it’s going to set a precedent for this song and other songs that may be claimed to be under copyright, which aren’t,” says [Nelson’s lawyer]. As for Nelson, she jokes that if her lawsuit succeeds, ‘People will be so sick of the ‘Happy Birthday to You’ song, because everybody will get to use it, finally.'”
What fan charity efforts do you know about? Write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.
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