April Program:
Intellectual Property in a New Media World
Even just a quick perusal of Publisher's Weekly news will alert anyone to the fact that new media is becoming a regular, if not increasingly dominant, concern of the publishing industry. To tackle such concerns and answer questions on blogs, social networking, and the gnarly new threats being posed to copyright, CWIP invited a panel of experts to the April 2008 program, "Intellectual Property in a New Media World."
These experts included Evan Brown, an attorney specializing in intellectual property and technology law who runs the blog InternetCases.com; Jake Parillo, product specialist for FeedBurner, a feed management provider that was purchased by Google in 2007; Len Strazewski, acting director of the graduate program in Journalism at Columbia College Chicago and coordinator of computer-assisted reporting and new media; and Steve Tippie, vice president of marketing and licensing at Tribune Media Services. Allison Durocher, licensing manager of scholarly journals at the American Academy of Pediatrics, was on hand to moderate the panel.
Each panelist had a different interpretation of the phrase "new media." Steve, who can remember a time before the Internet came into common existence (a foggy past even for those of us who were there), associates new media with technology developed after 1993. Jake believes that three common elements are found in something that can be called new media: speed, volume, and interactivity. Evan sees new media being delivered in two different ways: one is traditional media that is being viewed in a new way, such as a newspaper online, the other is user-generated content that often involves some social element, like a blog with a comment track.
As a journalism professor, Len finds that new media skills have become critical for new hires straight out of journalism school. For this reason Columbia College's journalism students are required to do activities such as write a regular blog. Assignments associated with regular print activity are met with some resistance. Len says that when he gives a news quiz students will refuse to buy a newspaper in order to check the latest headlines. They prefer to find their information online.
As information delivery moves more in the direction of new media, it appears that not much can be done to stop it. Of more immediate concern to publishing professionals is how to control use of copyrighted material in this new world of easy access.
Steve, who manages over 200 properties for Tribune Media Services, is understandably opposed to free access. He gave the example of someone who wanted to license rights to the Little Orphan Annie name by creating a doll called "Little Organ Annie." He rejected this proposal as something not in line with the history and image of the character. Jake, on the other hand, thinks free access as a great way to open up creative material that might not otherwise be possible. He gave the example of a Harry Potter fan site that made use of images of the characters. With tight copyright controls and limited access, fans are restricted in their ability to interact with characters from the books that they love.
One of the most intriguing discussions of the program was that around the topic of Creative Commons. Len says that the collaborative nature of the Internet is creating a shift away from the "you made it, you own it" mentality of traditional copyright. Creative Commons is attempting to address that shift by rethinking copyright. The following video that Len recommended is a great introduction to Creative Commons: Get Creative.
To learn more about the topics discussed at the April program, feel free to explore these other items of interest:
- Glossary of New Media Terms
- U.S. Copyright Office
- Copyright Alliance's new social networking site
- DailyLit, a site delivering books by email and RSS feed
- Electronic Frontier Foundation, defending the rights of end users
Tamara Matthews is a freelance writer, a full-time editor at a trade association, and is also Web site editor for CWIP. She can be reached at web@cwip.org.