Re-Imagining Accessibility
![Shepard Fairey’s “Barack Obama/Hope” image went viral during the 2008 election. Then controversy about the image’s source transformed it into the poster child for fair use in the public debate over copyright and free culture. Now FULAB takes “Hope” as its icon [Image source: Wikipedia]](http://fairuselab.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/shepard_fairey_hope_2008.jpg "shepard_fairey_hope_2008")
Re-imagining accessibility through the transformations of culture -- particularly the transformative promise of accessible technology for people with disabilities -- is the work of the Fair Use Lab. What does Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster have to do with accessibility? Read more: Shape-Shifters in the Fair Use Lab [MiT6 2009]
Remix: Danger Mouse
![Promotional artwork for "The Grey Album" by Justin Hampton. This was not used for the actual cover, but appeared on the Danger Mouse website in 2004. [Source: Wikipedia]](http://fairuselab.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/danger_mouse_grey_album_cover_200.jpg "danger_mouse_grey_album_cover_200")
Will DJ Danger Mouse become the Che Guevara of digital sampling? Consider the case for fair use made by The Grey Album.Blind Photographers
In the moment when Paul Strand photographed her surreptitiously on the street in New York, the social engineers who created a system for licensing beggars never imagined that a blind woman had culture or could make culture. She herself may not have imagined it. Paul Strand probably didn’t give her much credit for making culture, either. Read more: Curiosity & The Blind Photographer [MiT5 2007] See more on blind photographers.Disability As Praxis
I am a parent, homeowner, knowledge worker, and person with disabilities. Oppression is not my true word, but praxis is. In Paulo Freire’s transformative work, I find an affirmation deeper than ideology or political activism -- an affirmation of the dynamic role of disability in culture. I believe the daily praxis of making adaptations and negotiating accommodations represents a significant form of cultural production. Read Disability As Praxis.ADA 20th Anniversary
![President George H.W. Bush signs into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990 as Justin Dart looks on. [Source: ucp.org]](http://fairuselab.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ada_signing_072690_ucp_2.jpg "ada_signing_072690_ucp_2")
On its 20th anniversary, pundits will debate what the Americans with Disabilities Act has accomplished. I still believe what I said in a TV interview after the ADA signing ceremony in 1990. “The ADA will not end disability discrimination overnight. But in a nation governed by the rule of law, getting it in writing is the place to start.” So what is the ADA's legacy? A Generation of Problem-Solvers.
a blind flaneur
Category Archives: copyright
Siva Vaidhyanathan on “Copyrights and Copywrongs”
Siva Vaidhyanathan talks about Copyrights and Copywrongs at Columbia University’s Art & Technology Lecture Series in 2004. He draws on his book of the same name, citing examples of musical sampling including Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Led Zeppelin, and hip-hop culture. Continue reading
Posted in copyright
Tagged fair use, hip-hop, mashup, remix, sampling, Siva Vaidhyanathan
Leave a comment
Lawrence Lessig on the Ecology of Access
Lawrence Lessig gave a thought-provoking talk about “the ecology of access to books at the Berkman Center workshop on Alternative Approaches to Open Digital Libraries in the Shadow of the Google Book Search Settlement (073109). Listen now – MP3 My … Continue reading
Posted in copyright, ecology
Tagged accessibility, copyright, ecology, fair use, Google Books, Lawrence Lessig
Leave a comment
Judge in RIAA Case: Depose, Yes; Tweet, No
Via David Kravets in Threat Level | Wired.com: A federal judge on Tuesday suggested she would sanction Charles Nesson, the founder of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, for his “blatant disregard” of court orders. Nesson is defending … Continue reading
Online Copyright Help for College Instructors
Via Wired Campus – Chronicle.com: As instructors prepare for the fall semester, colleges are trying to make sure their teachers aren’t breaking any copyright laws in their lectures. The City University of New York’s Baruch College recently released an interactive … Continue reading
Posted in copyright
Leave a comment
Weaker Copyright Protection Benefits Cultural Production, According to Economic Study
From Michael Geist at the Law University of Ottawa: Economists Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf have just released a new Harvard Business School working paper called File Sharing and Copyright that raises some important points about file sharing, copyright, and … Continue reading