News
01.11.10
Chris spoke at the World's Fair Use Day event in Washington, D.C. this week. World’s Fair Use Day (WFUD) is a free, all-day celebration of the doctrine of fair use: the legal right that allows innovators and creators to make particular uses of copyrighted materials. WFUD was organized by Public Knowledge, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit, consumer-advocacy group. While TSL has not needed to invoke fair use, machinima as a viral form of fan art, along with mash-ups, remixes and other recombinative work, benefits from a healthy legal environment for artists. Fair use is an important part of that environment.
Amongst the artists, producers, lawyers and others who spoke at WFUD were Mark Hosler of the band Negativland and writer Mark Dery, whose music and writing respectively, helped pave the way for a more open creative/legal environment.
Chris spoke about the different approach of many in the games industry, who consider fan-created derivative works to be a vital part of the gaming community. While the rules of creation could be more favorable to artists, many in the games industry deserve credit for embracing fan art and remix culture with EULAs that open up their worlds, characters and stories to derivative works within certain boundaries. Compared to the film and music industries, this is a very forward-thinking approach that should be supported and utilized by more artists.