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Internet & Tech news from New Media Rights
Your 4G phone may not actually be 4G (even if your carrier says it is)
Are you in the market for a new phone and want the best one out there? Many wireless companies say in their commercials that in order to be on the crest of the wave of the future, you must get one of their 4G phones. You can download the latest blockbusters, or make your own home movies and share them with friends and family. Speeds are advertised that apparently allow you to do anything from be part of a flash mob to data intensive downloading. But there are some serious limits to the companies’ claims.
Categories: Internet and New Media
New Media Rights signs open letter sent to Congress regarding SOPA, PIPA, and internet freedom with 70 other groups
February 6, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Art Neill, Executive Director, New Media Rights, (619) 591-8870
On February 6, 2012, New Media Rights joined approximately 70 grass-roots groups, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, human rights groups, communities of color, and Internet companies in sending a letter asking Congress to stop its work on intellectual property issues in the wake of massive public protests against the Stop Online Piracyi Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).
Categories: Internet and New Media
NMR Testimonial: Susan Myrland
Susan Myrland, an internet user, ran in trouble when an unscrupulous advertising company recreated an old personal website of Susan's without permission, and then incorporated spam advertisements on the site. New Media Rights helped Susan respond to the abuse of her personal information and fix the damage this created, here's how.
Categories: Internet and New Media
New Media Rights files comments in Copyright Office inquiry into remedies for small copyright claims
On October 27, 2011, the CopyrightU.S. Copyright Office">i Office released a Notice of Inquiry soliciting commentary on how copyright holders and defendants address small copyright claims within the current legal system, the drawbacks and benefits of the current system, and potential alternative methods for handling such claims. The Copyright Office was primarily concerned that the high cost of federal copyright litigation (as much as $350,000 for claims under $1 million) may be dissuading copyright holders from filing lawsuits where damages are relatively low, because the potential award will not justify the expense of the litigation. Unlike many other varieties of small claims, state small claims courts are not available as a venue for resolving disputes over small copyright claims, because federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over copyright claims. The Copyright Office suggested a number of potential solutions including creating a federal small claims court and allowing state small claims courts to hear copyright disputes.
In our January 17, 2012 comment, New Media Rights identifies a key frustration afflicting small-scale defendants, the “settling culture” that has emerged within the current system whereby defendants are intimidated into paying settlements and accepting DMCAUCLA Institute for Cyberspace Law and Policy Visit the New Media Rights How-To-Guide about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act">i takedown requests rather than risk the high costs of federal litigation. Copyright holders exploit the high cost of federal litigation to extract unwarranted settlements from small-scale defendants and impose improper DMCA takedowns. We tell that story with real life examples.
Categories: Internet and New Media
How Apple, Google, and your wireless carrier control your phone
You own your cellphone. So you should be able to do with it what you want, right? Wrong, unfortunately. Apple, GoogleWikipedia, with significant reworking of and addition to the text. Wikipedia information is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 3.0">i, your wireless carrier, and others all control what you can do with your phone. They prevent you from downloading apps; they may remotely delete apps from your phone; they may even prevent you from downloading operating system updates necessary to use your phone.
Just how do they exercise this control, and how does it affect you? Read on to find out.
Categories: Internet and New Media
NMR Testimonial: Michael Colin
Michael Colin is a independent documentary filmmaker. Documentary films often reuse content that already exists, and if that content isn't in the public domain, or licensed, filmmakers sometimes need to rely on fair use under copyright law. New Media Rights helped Michael analyze the Fair Use issues in his film. Here's his testimonial of how we helped him.
Categories: Internet and New Media
How mobile apps track and share your location and other personal information
You are being tracked. The tracking device is your smartphone. And the tracker? Apple and Google. And your cellphone carrier. And software companies. And countless other third parties. And shopping malls. Oh, and also potentially law enforcement agencies.
Just what, exactly, are these groups tracking? And why? Read on to find out.
Categories: Internet and New Media
Our recent accomplishments
We want to update you, our community, on our recent successes and what the future holds for New Media Rights. Since July, we have been supported by a grant from the California Consumer Protection Foundation (CCPF).
By partnering with New Media Rights, CCPF took a leadership role in ensuring that consumers and creators have a source of assistance for the difficult questions that arise with the use of the Internet, mobile applications, and other new communications technologies. CCPF support has provided consumers / creators free, expert one-to-one assistance for digital rights issues, so CCPF should be recognized as an innovator in the digital rights field and we thank them for their support.In addition to our free assistance, we have produced cutting edge guides addressing problems actually faced by internet users. This educational material has already reached thousands and will continue to help people for years to come. Through our policy comments on the AT&T-T-Mobile merger (here and here) and other issues, we’ve communicated the issues that independent media creators and consumers face to policy makers.
We thank the CCPF, and our many generous individual supporters for supporting this important work.
We particularly thank those who have recently supported us through our Founder’s program. We're trying to raise $25,000 by December 31. Please help us by donating to our Founders campaign, please visit this page.
For other ways to support New Media Rights, visit this page
Categories: Internet and New Media
Founder's Page
This is a list of individuals and organizations that have made donations of over $250 and were willing to share their name as Founder's. We are grateful for their support. We are looking for more founder's. If you believe in our mission, consider giving to our Founder's campaign.
Categories: Internet and New Media
If I recopy someone elses work using my own time and money can I get around copyright law?
Categories: Internet and New Media
Is it legal to download works from peer-to-peer networks and if not, what is the penalty for doing so?
Categories: Internet and New Media
Can I write the screenplay for the sequel to a movie if I didn’t write the original movie?
Categories: Internet and New Media
What percentage of a design must be changed to avoid copyright infringement?
Categories: Internet and New Media
Like what you see? Go ahead and show your support! UCAN is a truly independent non-profit watchdog organization, dependent on grassroots donations like yours!
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