OTW Fannews: Doing Your Part

• NPR was among some reporting on a new Russian policy that began banning some memes. "In effect it really bans all memes using celebrities. Insofar as the language of this announcement, which was posted on VKontakte (ph) - which is the Russian equivalent of Facebook - they said that any images that use famous people's identities, or images, they're against the law if they take that image out of context of that person's reputation." However, "this decision is totally unenforceable. The entire point is not to purge the Internet of bad things. It's to make people online afraid of getting in trouble."
• The New York Times warned that Net Neutrality progress in the U.S. didn't mean that it wasn't under threat elsewhere. "Last month, the European Council...adopted a proposal that would allow telecommunications companies to charge Internet businesses like Netflix and Google fees to deliver their videos and other content to users faster than could smaller companies that cannot afford to pay for preferential treatment. In India, the country’s telecommunications regulator asked for comments on whether it should adopt a provision similar to what Europe is considering. The regulator also asked if telecom companies should be able to charge users extra fees for services like YouTube, WhatsApp and Skype on top of the fees people already pay for access to the Internet."
• The OTW has petitioned for a renewal of a DMCAexemption for fan video makers. Our Legal team has been asking that fans write in about their need for high quality source from sources that are only available on Blu-Ray; or sources from places like iTunes or Amazon when that's necessary to make a timely vid to participate in an ongoing fannish conversation. OTW Staffers will be testifying before the Copyright Office at the end of May to extend their rights to break encryption to Blu-Ray, as well as maintain them for DVD and streaming sources.

What efforts have you seen fans making to oppose restrictive laws? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a Fannews post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.