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
Tag Archives: copyright
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
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Will Obama Sacrifice Blind Readers to the Content Industry’s Agenda?
In a recent column in the Financial Times, James Boyle assesses the Obama administration’s initial record in the copyright/intellectual property arena and finds it to be business as usual. He concludes his argument with the example of accessibility for blind … Continue reading
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
French Senate Passes Harsh Internet Piracy Bill
AFP: French bill to combat Internet piracy clears final hurdle 051309: PARIS (AFP) — A controversial French bill to combat Internet piracy by cutting off the web to illegal downloaders won final approval Wednesday in the Senate. The legislation, described … Continue reading
Profit from Piracy, Don’t DRM It
Erica Naone writes inTechnology Review: Embracing Piracy 043009: At a recent panel at South by Southwest Interactive, a Web conference in Austin, TX, panelists suggested that the creators of online content need to use the wide distribution of pirated content, … Continue reading