Public Knowledge President and Co-Founder Gigi B. Sohn announced that the organization will sponsor the first World's Fair Use Day on Jan. 12, 2010 in Washington, D.C. The event will be an all-day celebration of the doctrine of fair use: the legal right that allows innovators and creators to make particular uses of copyrighted materials without permission of the copyright holder.
“World's Fair Use Day will shine a spotlight on how crucial fair use is
to our culture, our democracy and our economy,” Sohn said. “It is
important for people to realize that it is not always illegal to use
copyrighted materials without permission.”
The event will take place at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., beginning at 9 a.m. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) will be the keynote speaker, followed by panels dealing with fair use in the arts, emerging media and technology, as well as a question-and-answer session.
Panel participants include Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy Chief Technology Officer,who will provide the Obama Administration's perspective; Dan Reetz, creator and steward of the DIY Book Scanner project; Dan Walsh, creator of the “Garfield Minus Garfield” web comic; Filmmaker and copyright critic Nina Paley; video remix artists & activists Jonathan McIntosh and Elisa Kreisinger; Lincoln Bandlow, Senator John McCain's attorney, who argued a fair use defense when the song “Running on Empty” was used in a campaign ad without permission.
Details on the full program are available here.
On Jan. 11, the evening before the program, PK will host a movie double feature of Brett Gaylor's film, “RIP: A Remix Manifesto” and Kembrew McLeod's film, “Copyright Criminals.” The directors of both films will participate in a Q&A after the screenings, moderated by Mark Hosler of the pioneering audio collage band Negativland.
The screening will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Dewey & LeBoeuf law firm, located at 1101 New York Ave NW.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.