Name: Defending Fair Use in the Omegaverse
Brand: eff.org
SKU: eff-org-307
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Defending Fair Use in the Omegaverse

preview

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItCopyright law is supposed to promote creativity, not stamp out criticism. Too often, copyright owners forget that – especially when they have a convenient takedown tool like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).EFF is happy to remind them – as we did this month on behalf of Internet creator Lindsay Ellis. Ellis had posted a video about a copyright dispute between authors in a very particular fandom niche: the Omegaverse realm of wolf-kink erotica. The video tells the story of that dispute in gory and hilarious detail, while breaking down the legal issues and proceedings along the way. Techdirt called it “.” We agree. But feel free to watch “,” and decide for yourself.The dispute described in the video began with a series of takedown notices to online platforms with highly dubious allegations of copyright infringement. According to these, one Omegaverse author, Zoey Ellis (no relation) had infringed the copyright of another, Addison Cain, by copying common thematic aspects of characters in the Omegaverse genre, i.e., tropes. As Ellis’ video explains, these themes not only predate Cain’s works, but are uncopyrightable as a matter of law. Further litigation ensued, and Ellis’ video explains what happened and the opinions she formed based on the publicly available records of those proceedings. Some of those opinions are scathingly critical of Ms. Cain. But the First Amendment protects scathing criticism. So does copyright law: criticism and parody are classic examples of fair use that are authorized by law. Still, as we have many times, DMCA abuse targeting such fair uses remains a pervasive and persistent problem.&nbsp;Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for Cain to send (through counsel) outlandish allegations of copyright infringement and defamation. Soon after, Patreon and YouTube received DMCA notices from email addresses associated with Cain that raised the same allegations.That’s when EFF stepped in. The video is a classic fair use. It uses a relatively small amount of a copyrighted work for purposes of criticism and parody in an hour-long video that consists overwhelmingly of Ellis’ original content. In short, the copyright claims were deficient as a matter of law.&nbsp;The defamation claims were also deficient, but their presence alone was cause for concern: defamation claims have no place in a DMCA notice.&nbsp; If you want defamatory content taken down, you should seek a court order and satisfy the First Amendment’s rigorous requirements. Platform providers should be extremely skeptical of DMCA notices that include such claims and examine them carefully.We explained these points in a to Cain’s counsel. We hoped the reminder would be well-taken. We were wrong. In Cain’s counsel accused EFF of colluding with the Organization for Transformative Works to undermine her client and demanded apologies from both EFF and Ellis.As we explain in today’s , that’s not going to happen. EFF has fought for years to protect the rights of content creators like Lindsay Ellis and we will not apologize for our commitment to this work. Nor will Ellis apologize for exercising her right to speak critically about public figures and their work. It’s past time to put an end to this entire matter.&nbsp;Share ItA recent District Court decision in . is a for free speech. The Court firmly rejected the argument that copyright law creates a shortcut around the First Amendment’s protections for anonymous critics. In the case, a company tried to...Copyright law cannot be used as a shortcut around the First Amendment’s strong protections for anonymous internet users, a federal trial court ruled on Tuesday.The by a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California confirms that copyright holders issuing subpoenas under the...A copyright holder can’t use a court order against the owner of an infringing website to conscript every intermediary service on the internet into helping make that website disappear, .The brief, filed in the U.S. District Court...EFF client Erik Johnson, a Miami University computer engineering undergraduate, reached a settlement in the lawsuit we brought on his behalf against exam surveillance software maker Proctorio, in a victory for fair use of copyrighted material and people’s right to fight back against bad faith Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)...Anonymous speech is an important protection for those concerned about political or economic retribution, harassment, or even threats to their lives. The shield that protects those speakers’ anonymity in U.S. court is the First Amendment, and applying the appropriate constitutional test during litigation allows a court to appropriately balance the...Software robots should not be deciding whether your creative content, whether written words, videos, photos, or music, ought to be pulled off the internet.That’s what we told the U.S. Copyright office in arguing against requiring service providers to embrace “standard technical measures” to address...Washington D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) a federal appeals court to block enforcement of onerous copyright rules that violate the First Amendment and criminalize certain speech about technology, preventing researchers, tech innovators, filmmakers, educators, and others from creating and sharing their work.EFF, with co-counsel Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &amp;...The Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas will be . Those attending this weekend’s hybrid event will have a with the man who heads the department responsible for surveillance of immigrants, Muslims, Black activists, and other marginalized...Whether it’s “bringing the world closer together” (Facebook), “organizing the world’s information” (Google), to be a market “where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” (Amazon) or “to make personal computing accessible to each and every individual” (Apple), the founding missions of tech giants reveal...Security research is vital to protecting the computers upon which we all depend, and protecting the people who have integrated electronic devices into their daily lives. To conduct security research, we need to protect the researchers, and allow them the tools to find and fix vulnerabilities. The Digital Millennium Copyright...Share It

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItCopyright law is supposed to promote creativity, not stamp out criticism. Too often, copyright owners forget that – especially when they have a convenient takedown tool like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).EFF is happy to remind them – as we did this month on behalf of Internet creator Lindsay Ellis. Ellis had posted a video about a copyright dispute between authors in a very particular fandom niche: the Omegaverse realm of wolf-kink erotica. The video tells the story of that dispute in gory and...

public

Alex Moss

Corynne McSherry

We're the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We defend your civil liberties in a digital world.

Defending Fair Use in the Omegaverse

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS