Posts in Intellectual Property
Copyright Week and Good News About Article 13
On the last day of Copyright Week, the EU nations’ Councils have voted on their positions on Article 13, and the majority have decided not to support it in its current form. This is good news for fans! Article 13, as it was drafted, would have held many websites liable for user-created content, and in many cases would have required the use of filters that could have limited the availability of fanworks and other legitimate, non-infringing uses of copyrighted material. Although the proposal would not have affected nonprofits like the OTW–that is, AO3 would not have been affected–it still could have had a significant impact… Read more
Copyright Week and Public Domain
It’s Copyright Week, and in honour of this event, OTW Legal Chair Betsy Rosenblatt is answering some questions about the public domain. What is Copyright Week and why is it important? Copyright Week is a time for websites, libraries, and advocacy groups to bring attention to copyright law and policy–to get people excited about copyright law and keep people aware of legal developments. It takes place in the third week of January to commemorate the 2012 victory of Internet users over proposed laws called SOPA and PIPA. By speaking out, contacting Congress, and engaging in website blackouts, Internet users stopped overreaching copyright laws that would… Read more
This Week in Fandom, Volume 101
Welcome to This Week in Fandom, the OTW’s roundup of things which are happening! Before we start, happy new year to all! If you’re hoping to have a more positive fannish experience in 2019, Hypable has published a list of fandom-related new year’s resolution suggestions. A major event in the world of copyright happened on January first. According to Lifehacker, 1923 works just entered the public domain, the first time this has happened in 20 years, thanks to the “Sonny Bono Copyright Act” of 1998. WBUR News published an article examining the creative implications of this event, which includes an interview with OTW co-founder and… Read more
EU Legal Developments, the AO3, and You
We’ve written before in this space about Articles 11 and 13 — fan-unfriendly legal proposals in the EU. On September 12, the European Parliament voted in favor of those proposals. Is it bad? Yes. Is it the end of the story? No. Is it going to change the AO3? Probably not. What can you do about it? Read on. Articles 11 and 13 impose new requirements on sites that host user content, like the AO3, Tumblr, YouTube, and the like. In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects these sites from some kinds of copyright liability, so that the sites aren’t responsible for… Read more
Fight Fan-Unfriendly EU Legal Developments–Time to Act!
Back in July, fans and allies helped convince the European Parliament to schedule a vote rather than automatically approving some fan-unfriendly proposals. Now it is time to act! The European Parliament will be voting on these proposals in a few days. The short version of “what can I do” is: Contact your MEP now. For the longer version, and a discussion of why these proposals matter to fans, read on! What Are Articles 11 and 13, and Why are They Bad for Fans? Fandom loves and thrives on the Internet, and the Internet loves and thrives on fandom! So much of what makes fan communities… Read more