The U.S. Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress announced six new exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Digital Rights Management (DRM)  measures stating, “Persons making noninfringing uses of the following [...] classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) until the conclusion of the [...]

Electronic Frontier Foundation legal director Cindy Cohn talks net neutrality, first amendment and fair use with Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report. From EFF: “In a hard-hitting in-depth interview, Stephen and Cindy sparred over the most important issues facing the Internet today, including Hitler jokes, the Second Amendment, and Beer Cat.” More from Colbert Nation.

Jeff Koons describes his affinity for creating a dialogue with other artists by referencing art history — both Classical and Modern — in his work. From ArtBabble: Jeff Koons plucks images and objects from popular culture, framing questions about taste and pleasure. His contextual sleight-of-hand, which transforms banal items into sumptuous icons, takes on a [...]

Public Access Media interviews Girl Talk (Greg Gillis) prior to his performance at the Capitol Hill Block Pary in Seattle, WA (2008). “With my work,” Gillis says, “there’s a thing called fair use in United States copyright law that allows you to sample without asking for permision if it falls under certain criteria — if [...]

In spring 2009, Shepard Fairey, Steven Johnson, and Lawrence Lessig sat down at the New York Public Library to discuss balancing artistic freedom and copyright law. Lessig mentions Viacom’s policy toward remixing, noting that the media giant will not remove videos with transformative elements in order to encourage creativity. In light of the recent Viacom [...]

In 1991, Negativland released U2. The EP mashed a rant by American Top 40 host Casey Kasem with samples of U2′s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and an accompanying kazoo. U2′s label Island Records sued Negativland alleging both copyright (unauthorized sampling) and trademark infringement (misleading cover artwork) — according to the band, [...]

Walking On Eggshells is a project by Jacob Albert, Ryan Beauchamp and Brendan Schlagel for the seminar Intellectual Property in the Digital Age at Yale University. From the filmmakers: Walking on Eggshells is a 24-minute documentary about appropriation, creative influence, re-use and intellectual property in the remix age. It is a conversation among various musicians, [...]

At TEDxNYED, Lawrence Lessig gave a talk on the importance of balancing commercial and sharing culture through copyright. “Freedom,” he states, “is [the] opportunity to both have the commercial success of the [] works and the opportunity to build this different kind of culture — and for that to happen, you need ideas like fair [...]