Here's a roundup of recent good and bad news from the United Kingdom that could impact fans:

• Discussions about blocking websites that are considered to infringe on copyright have been shelved by the U.K. government. However, the idea has been postponed rather than abandoned, since the decision to shelve turned largely on the details of the plan rather than the general intent. Similar efforts may spring up again in the near future. This article from the BBC News discusses fan fiction, specifically, as an example of the "remix culture" that must be recognized and accommodated in any new copyright revisions.
• The U.K. has been focusing on updating copyright laws for the digital age. This overview of an in-depth report on the state of copyright in the U.K. suggests that the revamp may be a good thing for the economy, but it stops short of endorsing "fair use" exemptions similar to those in the U.S. One idea proposed in the report was a central clearinghouse for all copyrighted works. It remains to be seen how such an institution might affect fanworks.
• If you're interested in hearing discussions on how copyright can better serve artists and the general public, the Global Congress on Intellectual Property and Publication is taking registrations until 23 August for its webcast.

If you would like to add information to Fanlore entries on copyright, the site is open to participation from all fans and would welcome your contributions.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

Calling all vidders and remix artists! Public Knowledge is holding a Copyright School Video Challenge: to explain what you can and can't do under fair use better than YouTube's "copyright school", which has been criticized for focusing more on the CAN'T than on the CAN. As Public Knowledge explains, "While 'Copyright School' does a great job of telling you what you can't do with copyrighted content, it does a very poor job of telling you what you can do with copyrighted content--namely, remix, reuse and repurpose it without permission from the rightsholder as allowed under the doctirine of fair use." The winning video will get a $1000 prize and be featured on the Public Knowledge website. Judges include political remixers Jonathan McIntosh and Elisa Kreisinger, activist and scholar Brian Rowe, and Kirby Ferguson, director of the web series Everything is a Remix.

You can find out more at publicknowledge.org and at politicalremixvideo.com. (Important: the challenge deadline is May 23, 2011!)

Here’s a roundup of links that might be of interest to fans: stories about the Catcher in the Rye sequel, video parodies and edits, more inexplicable takedowns, editable videos on iTunes and more beneath the cut!

* Frederick Colting has cut a deal with the Salinger estate to publish his sequel, 60 Years Later, in most of the world--but not in North America. In the U.S. and Canada, he has agreed to wait until the expiry of copyright on the original.

* Warner Brothers isn't going to fight a viral YouTube parody of their new 3D Yogi Bear film even though its dark in tone (spoiler: death warning for major character!) The studio acknowledged that the video was a protected work of parody.

* The New York Public Library is running the 90 Second Newbery Video Contest, which invites people to "make a video that compresses the story of a Newbery award-winning book into 90 seconds or less." Remix seems to be becoming a standard pedagogical practice.

* iTunes & Sony Are Experimenting With Searchable, Clippable Movies: new features include the ability to search the video for exact phrases, and "clip and share."

* Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency is trying to find out why her political remix video, a video game vid made to Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor, was removed as a content violation of YouTube's terms of service.

* Lastly, Henry Jenkins is continuing to host exhibits of various kinds of remix video at his blog. Both vidders and amv-makers might be interested in this in-depth comparison between vidding and amv, and gamers might enjoy Part 1 and Part 2 of the Video and Gaming Culture segment.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about you can submit it in three easy ways: comment on the most recent Link Roundup on LJ, IJ or DW, tag a link with "for:otw_news" on Delicious or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

(Anmerkung: viele der Links führen zu Seiten in brasilianischem Portugiesisch.)

Ein überarbeitetes Urheberrecht, das in den nächsten Monaten dem brasilianischen Nationalkongress vorgelegt werden soll, wird transformativen Werken einen expliziteren Schutz vor der Anfechtung durch Rechteinhaber gewähren, falls es in seiner jetzigen Form verabschiedet wird. Durch das Gesetz sollte es außerdem legal für Fans werden, den Kopierschutz (Digital Rights Management - DRM) zu umgehen, wenn das der Erstellung transformativer Werke dient.

Brasiliens Haltung bei Einschränkungen zum Urheberrecht ist schon jetzt weniger streng als die vieler anderer Länder. Es erlaubt die Verwendung kurzer Auszüge eines Werkes in jedem Zusammenhang (nicht nur für Erziehungszwecke und Kritik), der die normale kommerzielle Nutzung des Werkes nicht gefährdet. Artikel 46 Abschnitt VIII des Gesetzentwurfes zielt darauf ab, diese Ausnahme für “transformative Nutzungsarten” von Teilen eines Werkes deutlicher zu machen. Dazu kommt, dass eine allgemeine Klausel in Artikel 46, die zum Teil dafür gedacht ist, das Gesetz für zukünftige Technologien anwendbar zu machen, die Nutzung von geschütztem Material als “kreative Quelle” (“uso como recurso criativo”) erlaubt.

Artikel 107 des aktuellen Gesetzentwurfs macht es legal, einen Kopierschutz zu umgehen, falls dieser eine in Artikel 46 beschriebene Nutzung verhindert. Mit anderen Worten: Es scheint so, als erlaube das Gesetz das Umgehen von Kopierschutz für die Schaffung transformativer Werke wie Fanvids. Dies stimmt mit der bestehenden brasilianischen Rechtspraxis überein, nach der Rechteinhabern hohe Strafen drohen, wenn sie erlaubte Nutzung geistigen Eigentums unterbinden.

Das Gesetz, das eines aus dem Jahr 1998 ersetzt, soll die technischen Entwicklungen seit den 1990ern mit berücksichtigen. Es wurde so formuliert, dass Gerichte es auch auf zukünftige Technologien anwenden können, die in den Artikeln nicht speziell angesprochen werden. Im Gegensatz zu der Geheimhaltung im Zusammenhang mit den Verhandlungen über das vorgeschlagene internationale Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) wurde der Text des Gesetzentwurfs nach einer Phase öffentlicher Anhörungen zusammengestellt, die sich über mehrere Monate erstreckte.