NEWS: Artists' Legal Outreach 2009 in Review

Announcing the new Artists Legal Outreach website – we are excited to use this forum to talk about where art and law meet provide a forum for a conversation about copyright.  Give the blog a name - suggestions welcome.

March brought me to Boston and the National Association of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.  For the first time in my professional life I sat around a table with lawyers and administrators from across the US who work to make legal information and advice accessible to artists.  It was an inspiring few days.  Our next meeting is in Nashville in April 2010.  My trip to Boston brought much food for thought some of which will be brought from idea to reality in the coming year.  I also found some music I love: tjovi ginen.

Open Video Alliance June 2009. The conference brought together some of the leading legal minds with artists and the folk from the world of all that is the internet.   It was in turn inspiring and confusing for someone as analog as I especially when the boy from NYC asked me what a luddite was.  Experienced it all with Joy Garnett check out her blog: newsgrist.  This year we are partnering with W2 to provide a livestream of an OVA event with Lawrence Lessig on February 25, 2010.  Check out our events calendar for up to date info.

In June we received word from the Law Foundation of BC that the ALO would receive funds to enable us to better communicate with artists and arts organizations across the province.  Hence the website you are looking at - the toolkits (basically web pages with live links and embedded images and video) and their friends will be found under the toolkit link. 

Over the course of the summer we reviewed all our legal resources with the help of a library student, Angela.   On the left side of the site you can find a tag cloud that links directly to resources that we have found useful over the years.  You can search our index under the Resources tab.  Great thanks to Dereck Toker and Derek Robinson who made this all possible.  

In August the Open Education Conference brought the folks from Creative Commons to our doors.  We held a session on CC licenses for local folks.  We also held Remix: Vancouver at the VAG attended by more than 50 Open Education delegates and the arts community showcasing some artists work Sonny Assu and Hart Snider. 

A week or so later I was in Toronto asking the Minister to return to Vancouver for a town hall on copyright. You can find me on YouTube here.

The ALO blog will continue to provide updates on copyright and related events including CARFAC-BC's copyright tour in March. I will be on the road in Nanaimo, Kelowna, Victoria, Burnaby, West Vancouver and Surrey.  Check the events page for dates and locations.

Black Friday and the Gaming cuts occupied much time in September.  We have scheduled a three part series for arts administrators: Collaborating in Crisis: a series for arts administrators, board members on basic non profit management issues including whether (and how) to incorporate as a not for profit society; Society Act with a bylaw revision small group discussion March 24, Charity compliance issues should we apply, how do we work together with charities?  For those who register and attend all three we will provide a free hour long consultation with a lawyer.  Full details coming soon.

~ from Martha's blog.