Participate In The OTW (with a request for South African fans)

[morgandawn]

Posted in full at: http://ift.tt/1O6JWWX at September 06, 2015 at 12:17PM

Together with our partners in the Re:Create Coalition, Legal has proposed two panels for the 2016 South by Southwest conference. Find out more about them (and upvote us!) here: Copyright & Creators: 2026 (featuring Legal Chair Betsy) and Fair Use Awakens: Classrooms/Libraries/Communities (featuring Betsy and Legal Staffer Heidi). You can also find out more about Heidi’s other proposed panels and suggestions.

In August, Legal helped several fans, from several countries, with legal questions about copyright law, plagiarism, and fair use. They also successfully corresponded with the maker of an unauthorized Android app for reading on AO3. The app maker agreed to change the name of the app and make it clear in all promotions that it is unauthorized and unrelated to the OTW and that the OTW doesn’t provide support for it. Legal also took action regarding another unauthorized widget for Android that used the AO3 trademark in a confusing manner. Please be aware that the AO3 does not have an official app.

South Africa is considering adopting a fair use provision in its copyright law. Fair use supporters are trying to make sure that the law actually protects fair use, and Legal is preparing to file a supporting comment. We need your help signal-boosting our request for stories from South African fans about how they’ve benefited from making and/or consuming fanworks. Please send your stories to our Legal committee. The last time we did this, for the US, the stories were amazing.

Read more

Tags:fair use, otw, Organization for Transformative Works, south africa, DWCrosspost
Tumblr post (this is likely a reblog, and may have more pictures over there)