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Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video
Written by David Tames on July 21, 2008
Filed Under Copyright, Law, New Media, Podcasting, Video on the Web
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The Center for Social Media of the School of Communication at American University recently published The American Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video, an important guide for producers of online video who make use of copyrighted materials without specific permission. Online...  Continue Reading...

Unconstitutional FISA Bill Becomes Law
Written by David Tames on July 16, 2008
Filed Under Law, Politics
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I usually don’t blog about political issues on this blog, but enough is enough. On July 10, 2008, President Bush signed into law the clearly unconstitutional F.I.S.A. Amendments Act, which gives the Bush administration virtually unchecked powers to monitor Americans’ international...  Continue Reading...

Viacom will soon know what you watch on YouTube
Written by David Tames on July 3, 2008
Filed Under Law, The Media
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A recent BBC news story, “Google must divulge YouTube log,” reports on the latest phase in the Viacom case against Google’s YouTube: A U.S. court ordered Google to disclose the viewing logs of each and every YouTube user. This gives Viacom access to over 12 terabytes of data so...  Continue Reading...

Comcast does not want public voices heard
Written by David Tames on February 27, 2008
Filed Under Events & Screenings, Law, Media Literacy, The Media
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On Monday, February 25, 2008 the FCC held a public hearing, hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society on the campus of Harvard Law School. It turns out that Comcast was paying people to fill seats in the Ames Courtroom to prevent net neutrality supporters from participating in...  Continue Reading...

A copyright carol (canadian style)
Written by David Tames on January 8, 2008
Filed Under Law, New Media, Web
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Rudy Jahchan does a nice job commenting on proposed amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act in the most recent episode of Galacticast, “A Copyright Carol.” The bill was delayed following growing opposition to what many have argued was a flawed process and accusing lawmakers of...  Continue Reading...

Amazon wants control over your computer, will you allow it?
Written by David Tames on March 28, 2007
Filed Under General, Law, New Media, The Media, Video on the Web
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Would you be willing to surrender your rights to privacy, integrity of your personal data, and control over your computer, in order to download movies? If you’ve signed up for and installed Amazon UnBoxed on your computer, you have. Cory Doctorow, in his post “Amazon Unbox to customers:...  Continue Reading...