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“Stand Up Planet” Impact Evaluation Demonstrates Power of Comedy for Change

SUPAudience engagement is one of the key aspects of social issue documentaries seeking meaningful change within communities – yet filmmakers still struggle with the best ways to move audiences from awareness to action. Center Creative Director and documentary producer/strategist Caty Borum Chattoo’s new report Entertainment, Storytelling & Social Change in Global Poverty: An Impact Evaluation of “Stand Up Planet” addresses these issues head-on. Read more...

Just Released: Best Practices in Fair Use of Orphan Works

Best Practices for Orphan Works

At a live webinar on Thursday, Dec. 4, UC Berkeley and American University researchers released a new statement on best practices in the use of orphan works by libraries, archives and other institutions.

Over the last several years, libraries, archives and other institutions have recognized that copyright law poses a significant obstacle to digital preservation of—and online access to—large segments of their collections. This problem is especially acute for archives and collections that contain orphan works–i.e., works for which it is difficult or impossible to find rights holders who might give permission for their use. Read more...

Brian Winston: Is Clicktivism Enough?

Brian Winston

"The last thing I want to do is develop media to get in the way of person-to person interchange because... I think all communication should end with either a handshake or a kiss." This quote from George C. Stoney, pioneer of public-access television, highlights the importance of encouraging participation on the production side of media – and also served as the focal point of Brian Winston's recent lecture at American University, "Is Clicktivism Enough?"  Read more...

Fair Use Question of the Month: Can I Use Footage From a Copy-Protected DVD?

Encrypted DVDDear CMSI,

I’ve been playing with some new remix platforms, and I have a really funny video that does a mashup of similar scenes in three recent popular comedies, plus some old stuff from an educational film. I got the comedy stuff by breaking encryption on the DVDs. Am I in trouble? I can hardly wait to upload it to YouTube, but I don’t want to get busted.   Read more...

Research Libraries Celebrate Fair Use With New Videos

ARLThe Association of Research Libraries recently released a series of new videos discussing the development, use, and impact of fair use best practices. The videos specifically highlight the ways in which the “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries” has benefited the community, from making historical collections available to researchers online to alleviating the “book famine” of materials available to blind and otherwise print-disabled library patrons. Read more...