Source.

More at reddit.

Here is Smith’s pre-SOPA website.

Here is the background image, made by DJShulte.

Vice.com discovered the images.

So I took a look back at an archived, pre-SOPA version of his site.

I contacted DJ, to find out if Lamar had asked permission to use the image and he told me that he had no record of Lamar, or anyone from his organization, requesting permission to use it: “I switched my images from traditional copyright protection to be protected under the Creative Commons license a few years ago, which simply states that they can use my images as long as they attribute the image to me and do not use it for commercial purposes.

“I do not see anywhere on the screen capture that you have provided that the image was attributed to the source (me). So my conclusion would be that Lamar Smith’s organization did improperly use my image. So according to the SOPA bill, should it pass, maybe I could petition the court to take action against www.texansforlamarsmith.com.”

Oh dear. Luckily for DJ, there are people out there like Lamar making new laws to protect the little guy against online copyright theft. Keep fighting that good fight, Lamar!

Stolen Jobs from Creative America on Vimeo.

To launch our first single in eight years, AT&T helped us search YouTube for every instance of fans using our music without our permission. And then we rewarded them for it. This film is made out of clips from all those videos. Thanks for being a fan.

The fourth “Minute Meme” from QuestionCopyright.org.

Movie and song by Nina Paley
Performed by Evanescent (Vocals & Ukele: Bliss Blood, Guitar: Al Street)
Sound effects design by Greg Sextro

LYRICS:
Always give credit where credit is due
if you didn’t write it, don’t say it’s by you
just copy the credit along with the work
or else you’ll come off as an arrogant jerk

Always give credit where credit belongs
we know that you didn’t write Beethoven’s songs
pretending you did makes you look like a fool
unless you’re Beethoven — in that case, it’s cool

A transparent system makes cheating unwise
the simplest web search exposes your lies
no one wants their reputation besmirched
which happens to liars when they are web-searched

Proper citation will make you a star
it shows that you know that we know who you are
Plagiarization will only harm you
so always give credit where credit is due!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

via reddit.

The Revolution Will Be Animated from Marine Lormant Sebag on Vimeo.

In The Revolution Will Be Animated, documentary filmmaker Marine Lormant Sebag presents multiple viewpoints on copyright in the digital age. The film’s main character is Nina Paley, an American animator who produced a feature film called Sita Sings the Blues. Nina encountered many copyright issues with the songs she used, from 1920s´ singer Annette Hanshaw. These experiences made her realize that she didn’t want the same thing to happen to her film. She finally used a Creative Commons Share Alike license in order to free her work and present it to the world.

Here is the official version of Copying Is Not Theft.

He has long been one of the top writers in modern comics, as well as writing books for readers of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. He is best known for his science fiction and fantasy work, including his best-selling graphic novel “The Sandman”. He was awarded the Defender of Liberty Award by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in 1997, where he has since served on the Board for the last eight years. He has been blogging since 2001, as well as fundraising and raising awareness over free speech issues, and fighting (and winning) a landmark legal case on copyright int the US.

Many years ago, someone asked me if I had read The Sandman. I hadn’t even heard of it. After they finished freaking out, they gave me a nice digital copy that had been pirated. Ever since then, I’ve been a Neil Gaiman fan. I now own numerous books written by Neil Gaiman, the most recent being The Graveyard Book.

It isn’t just Neil Gaiman who has benefited from my piracy. I have also downloaded music from Bebel Gilberto and Thea Gilmore. I now own every album they have made. I can’t afford HBO, but I downloaded every episode of Rome. I now own the entire series on DVD. Then there are the things that weren’t originally available in The United States. These include Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, and a proper version of Blade Runner.

For many years, Blade Runner was available only as a horrible director’s cut. I owned it, but rarely watched it because I had also obtained a Laser Disc copy that had been converted to DVD. I vowed to purchase Blade Runner as soon as a proper Region 1 DVD version (Blu-Ray region coding is different) was available. I ended up buying the ultimate collector’s briefcase edition with every version/cut of the movie. However, for about 5 years, I had to watch my pirated copy because I could not obtain it anywhere else.

More authors, filmmakers, and musicians should embrace the idea of piracy a little bit more. I have, personally, spent thousands on supporting things I like because of piracy. Yes, there will be people who will always pirate and never give back, but there are far more who are willing to give to the artists they want to support. The Neil Gaimans of the world will make far more money from piracy than they will ever lose.