Reshaping the Copyright Rules for the Digital Age: A Creative Economy talk presented by Cain Hibbard & Myers on Sept. 18 @ 4-5:30 p.m. at the Norman Rockwell Museum
Stockbridge, Mass. (July 28, 2014) – Wondering what use you can make of someone else’s creative content? Thinking of “sharing” a video created by someone else? Or “sampling” some hit music into your new hip-hop beat? If so, be informed: copyright rules are in motion, and continue to evolve.
On Thursday, Sept. 18 from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Norman Rockwell Museum, Cain Hibbard & Myers attorney Sarah Kohrs and Managing Partner Lucy Prashker present an engaging and interactive talk, “Fair Use or Foul Play? Shaping the Rules for the Digital Age.”
Kohrs and Prashker will answer the easy questions and consider the hard ones, with examples from real-life cases involving well-known, and not so well-known, works of art. They will identify the legal guideposts, debunk common myths, and explore evolving views about fair use, examining the different perspectives of artists, academics and jurists.
“Whether we recognize it or not, we all draw on our own sense of ‘fair use’ every day in making decisions about what quote to include in our writing, what image to include on our website, and what sounds to include in an audio remix,” said Prashker. “Copyright law – and in particular fair use — is relevant not just to artists and academics, but to people in business and to just about anyone who participates in general public discourse and social media.”
Sometimes even the most innocent of users can be caught off-guard.
“In one case, a mother posted on YouTube a video of her toddler dancing to a song by the pop star Prince. This raised the hackles of the song’s record label and, to the surprise of many, the mother was sued,” said Kohrs. “Questions of ‘fair use’ arise virtually everywhere – from social media to yoga, in commercial operations and in charitable endeavors, from the forests of Jamaica to the Hollywood strip.”
This is the fourth of five events Cain Hibbard & Myers is hosting as part of its 50th anniversary year.