Whether you make or distribute digital art online, show your art within virtual worlds, create objects for sale to participants in games, or use the internet to market art made with non-digital materials, laws that affect cyberspace affect you. These overviews look at how a number of legal issues are being treated within the electronic environment.
An overview of policy issues of importance to independent film-makers as a result of the transition to the digital environment. The same issues will be important to those who work with many other art forms as well.
Center for Social Media [www.centerforsocialmedia.org]
Independent Television Service & Center for Social Media/Digital Futures: A Need-to-Know Policy Guide for Independent Filmmakers
An introduction to the basics of free speech in the online environment, including attention to libel law and intellectual property’. The law in each area is introduced in a very succinct way that essentially provides checklists of things to consider when facing a problem in any given area. Initially offered as a course, the Electronic Frontier Foundation now continues to make these materials available.
Electronic Frontier Foundation [www.eff.org]
Larry Lessig, David Post, & Eugene Volokh/Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers
Brief introductions to the modules in a semester-long course on cyberlaw provide overviews of issues pertinent to those who produce, present, or distribute art online. The overviews were written in 1999, and you’ll want to look further for details of current law.
Lewis & Clark Law School [law.lclark.edu/]
Lewis & Clark Law School/Learning Cyberlaw in Cyberspace
A look at the range of issues in cyberlaw that students might run into.
Student Press Law Center [www.splc.org]
Student Press Law Center/Cyberlaw: Internet & Online Media