The ISP provides a forum for resident fellows, visiting fellows, and student fellows to collaborate on and discuss significant research and policy projects. The ISP Working Paper Series makes the most significant of these initiatives available for public consumption and discussion.

David’s paper suggests that to avoid significant First Amendment problems and chilling effects, the PROTECT IP Act should be stripped of Internet blocking provisions, and passed as a surgically focused law that will dry up revenue sources for “rogue” web sites.

Media Piracy in Emerging Economies

Media Piracy in Emerging Economies is the first major independent study of contemporary piracy and enforcement, drawing on the work of some 30 researchers in 7 countries.  The study provides a detailed empirical look at the relationship between law, enforcement, pirate networks, and changing cultural and technological practices around media.  It does so by examining the structure of licit and illicit media markets from both the consumer and ‘business model’ perspective.  It traces the decade-long ramp up in enforcement, as the pursuit of stronger formal protections becomes a game of diminishing returns.  And it looks at the persistent failure of those efforts as digital technologies become cheap and ubiquitous.  The SSRC Media Piracy Project was created in 2006 to enable a better, more realistic conversation about these issues.  Its major product, Media Piracy in Emerging Economies, will be published in November.

About Joe Karaganis

Joe Karaganis is the Vice President at the American Assembly and a Program Director at the Social Science Research Council.  For ten years, he directed SSRC projects on media and information policy, including work on the politics of open source software adoption, broadband use in low-income communities, and access to data in media policymaking.  He is currently completing a 4-year, 7 country, 30 researcher collaborative project on music, film, and software piracy in emerging economies.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has written a thorough guide to help creative individuals navigate the issues surrounding posting videos and what to do if youtube takes down your video. For the more visually inclined, you can also watch this video about disputing takedowns, made after the Hitler downfall parody takedown controversy.

For those looking to read more about the mash-up and remixing culture Glee celebrates, Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture and Remix delve deeply into the issues with fascinating examples and a serious but accessible analysis of the law.

Finally, if you’re an artist who wants to allow others to use your work more freely, you can license your work under a creative commons license. There are several different licenses available that give the public varying degrees of freedom to use your work.