Stanford Center for Internet and Society
In the heart of the Silicon Valley, legal doctrine is emerging that will determine the course of civil rights and technological innovation for decades to come. The Center for Internet and Society (CIS), housed at Stanford Law School and a part of the Law, Science and Technology Program, is at the apex of this evolving area of law.
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Beyond Belief
Synopsis:
Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer moms living in the affluent suburbs of Boston until tragedy strikes. Rather than turning inwards, grief compels these women to focus on the country where the terrorists who took their husbands’ lives were trained: Afghanistan. Over the course of two years, as they cope with loss and struggle to raise their families as single mothers, these extraordinary women dedicate themselves to empowering Afghan widows whose lives have been ravaged by decades of war, poverty and oppression – factors they consider to be the root causes of terrorism.
Read the New York Magazine review
Read the Variety Magazine review
Read the ABC News review
Read the Cape Cod Times review
Read the All Movie Guide/NYTimes.com review
Read the Flick Filosopher review
Read the Boston Globe review
Trailer or Clip:
Links:
Debate Team
Synopsis:
Debate Team is a documentary exploring the weird subculture of competitive college debate. Competitors battle at 360 words per minute, hauling around mountains of evidence called “cards” and nearly every debate ends in global nuclear annihilation.
In 2005, nearly 200 teams converged on San Francisco State to compete in the National Championship. The documentary follows four teams, from Michigan State, Harvard, West Georgia, and Berkeley in their quest for the national title.
What emerges is not simply a chronicle of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, but a more disturbing examination into the nature of competition itself and the American fetish with championships and champions.
Debate Team is sponsored by Film Arts.
Trailer or Clip:
Links:
Land of Confusion
Synopsis:
In March of 2004 a Pennsylvania filmmaker was activated with his National Guard unit and deployed to Iraq. During the next twelve months he would document his unique experiences as he and his platoon were tasked with the politically charged mission of searching for the infamous weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The search would take them from the heart of Baghdad to rural Iraqi farms.
Land Of Confusion offers a never-before seen account of working with the then secretive Iraq Survey Group (ISG) as they travel throughout the country searching for evidence that Saddam had the WMDs. The film reveals the extraordinary perspective of soldiers on the ground in Iraq, as recorded by one of their own and goes far beyond what the conventional mainstream media shows audiences about the war.
View the trailer: QuickTime 6 or QuickTime 7
Land of Confusion will premiere at the Florida Film Festival in Orlando in February 2008. Land of Confusion was one of 10 documentaries selected for screening out of over 300 submissions to the FFF, one of the largest film festivals in the United States.
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Aguiar v. Webb: Webb Opposes Motion for Preliminary Injunction
by Brandy Karl, posted on November 14, 2007 - 6:50pm
On October 12 we filed Floyd Webb's Opposition to Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction. Plaintiff, in his motion, asked the court to enjoin Floyd Webb from using on his website or in his documentary film any copyrighted materials or trademarks the Plaintiff claims to own.
Doing God's Work
by Anthony Falzone, posted on November 8, 2007 - 12:33pm
Here is a very nice plug for CIS from one of the most respected and accomplished copyright lawyers around -- Bill Patry. In it, he notes my recent article about Sean Combs in Slate, and reminds us that Combs was also at the center of another copyright controversy about controlled composition clauses. Thanks, Bill, for the kind words.
Breath Control
Synopsis:
Breath Control is a documentary about making music with nothing but the human voice. The human beat box is one of the key elements in the development of Hip Hop culture, alongside Dj-ing, Graffiti, Breakdancing, and MC-ing. Unfortunately, its contribution has been largely overlooked, as has the fun, expressive, human, and spontaneous dimension of Hip Hop that it represents. As the first documentary of its kind, Breath Control: The History of the Human Beat Box uses interviews, live performances, archival footage, and animation to bring to light this important and neglected ingredient of Hip Hop's identity.
With the help of Beat Box pioneers DOUG E. FRESH, BIZ MARKIE, and THE FAT BOYS, Breath Control traces this art form from it's basic beat beginnings in the Eighties to it's present day multi-layered, polyrhythmatic figurehead's RAHZEL and SCRATCH of the Hip Hop group THE ROOTS. But Breath Control isn't limited to Hip Hop. Musician ZAP MAMA posits that human beat boxing is an artform practiced all over the world and has been refined by many different cultures. Breath Control is a half historical, half tutorial look at humans as actual instruments.
Why, Diddy? Why?
by Anthony Falzone, posted on October 18, 2007 - 11:05am
Music sampling has suffered a strange fate at the hands of copyright law. It should fare well under the fair use doctrine. In general, it's very transformative, uses small amounts of the copyrighted work, and there exists little possibility that the new work would serve as any plausible substitute for the old. Yet there are precious few cases that even address the application of fair use to music sampling.
I'm afraid much of this is due to the refusal of music publishers, record labels -- and even artists -- to raise the defense in the first place. A case in point: The Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Bridgeport Music v. Justin Combs Publishing, which affirmed copyright infringement liability against the defendants, including Bad Boy Records, the label founded and still headed by CEO Sean "Diddy" Combs. (The opinion also reversed an absurd punitive damage award. Read a full copy of the decision here.)
Aguiar v. Webb: Documentary Film Program Defends Filmmaker's Fair Use and Free Speech Rights
by Brandy Karl, posted on October 18, 2007 - 10:49am
Plaintiff William V. Aguiar III, sued documentary filmmaker Floyd Webb, alleging that Webb's promotional website and film trailer for his upcoming film infringe on copyrights and trademarks that Aguiar claims to own. Webb's film, "The Search for Count Dante," will chronicle the real-life odyssey of martial arts master John Keehan, a.k.a. Count Juan Raphael Dante -- "The Crown Prince of Death."
Hot Flash
Synopsis:
Using a combination of archival, interview and new concert footage as well as photographs, news clippings, and contemporary critical analysis, HOT FLASH tells the story of Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women: three middle-aged women who gave up their day jobs to pursue a love of blues full-time - and succeeded! This film also reveals that these women are far from a novelty. They are talented, accomplished musicians who combine the traditional with the unconventional, reinterpreting old blues classics and creating new gems. Their work ranges from bawdy, comedic tunes like “Big Ovaries, Baby” and “(I Got a) Silver Beaver” to poignant, political ballads such as “Blues for Sharon Bottoms” and “1-800-799-7233” (Nat’l Domestic Violence Hot Line).
Fair Use And Free Speech
by Anthony Falzone, posted on September 18, 2007 - 12:07pm
All too often, copyright is viewed in strcitly economic terms, as if it does no more than determine who pays what to whom, and when. In his editorial in today's LA Times, Kembrew McLeod reminds us that copyright enforcement and the scope of fair use rights also have profound free speech implications. Read it here.
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Our Work
Fair Use Cases
Copyright and Fair Use
- To Shoot An Elephant, CC BY-SA Documentary, Wins Award at Festival dei Popli
- WikiEducator, Connexions, and MediaWiki join forces in OER Remix Project
- CC board chair Esther Wojcicki on teachers sharing … and supporting CC
- Mr. Mayo’s Class Integrates CC, Skypes with Lawrence Lessig
- Indaba Launch CC BY Loop Library, Contest With Filter Magazine