There are two days left to defend remix.

Every three years we have to defend remix and it’s an exhausting process. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, video artists like myself who break the encryption on a DVD or sample online streaming videos could face legal threats, even if the video they create is considered fair use.

Criminalizing access to this pop-culture content means video remix and remix culture will cease to exist.

The Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress have the power to grant exemptions to this DMCA rules if the restrictions would encroach on otherwise lawful uses of copyrighted works. But the process is cumbersome: the public must submit requests backed up by evidence, others comment on those requests, hearings are held, the Register of Copyrights issues recommendations and then, finally the Librarian of Congress makes his or her decision.

And the exemptions don’t renew automatically, so we repeat this process every three years. Today we’re building on and expanding the exemptions that EFF won on the 2009 rulemaking proceeding for jailbreakers and remix artists.

We all know that remix culture and video remixes offer creative ways to educate, empower, entertain, and politicize people around the world. As a video artists I have used video clips to create remix videos that are humorous, political, artistic, and educational. I couldn’t do this creative work without breaking DVD encryption or sampling online video. I can tell you first hand, it’s the only way to get access to video clips; other ways of excerpting video tend to be slower and lower-quality, hurting the immediacy and impact of the work.

We need the law to catch up with how people are using technology.

Please help defend remix by joining 3,880 others in signing and commenting on this important letter to Maria Pallante, Head of the US Copyright Office. By doing so, you’ll be ensuring that the Internet remains full of creators, not just consumers.

Thanks for helping us keep the Internet interactive and safeguarding the rights of video artists everywhere.

After all, everything is a remix.

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