Project Title ****** In 200 characters or less, please provide a title that describes your project Reframing Public Perceptions of Copyright Restrictions, Through Artistand Audience Engagement. ****** Please describe the, proposed project and include the following information: Copyright restrictions are steadily tightening at the legislative and regulatory levels, even as the Internet nominally enables greater sharing of information and culture. Loosening these restrictions is essential to the development of informed and engaged communities, and to fulfilling the collaborative potential of a networked age. Yet the greatest barriers to loosening copyright restrictions are not legislative, but conceptual. This project's goal is to help shift the rhetoric and assumptions that underlie today's copyright restrictions, replacing them with new assumptions more compatible with collaborative culture -- what the free and open source software movement might call a "freedom-to-fork culture". We are building a sustainable, long-term effort dedicated to reframing and expanding the range of acceptable public debate about copyright, and to helping artists and other creators use non-monopolistic distribution methods. Our goal is to change the climate in which debate happens; a core part of our strategy is to provide tools and techniques that enable others to join this effort with minimal centralized coordination. We have already begun, and have had enough success (see below) to realize just how much more is possible. This is the moment for an investment of full-time attention. We are seeking a grant of $400,000 over 2 years to give it that attention. Based on our experiences so far, in fundraising and in public and artist response, we are confident this will be a sustained project lasting well beyond the Knight Foundation's funding. The project is designed to work in the current legal environment, using participatory programs to reframe artists' and audiences' perceptions about copyright; only after constituent conceptions change will the laws change. We have already had some success, and it will be apparent from the brief descriptions below how expanding these can lead to lasting effects: * "Minute Memes" videos: 435,000 views online (850,000 for our YouTube channel overall); shown at Economist.com, on Brian Lehrer TV in New York City, etc. Produced 3 of a projected 15 memes; received a $30,000 grant supporting them from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. * "Sita Distribution Project": free distribution terms enabled the artist to profit monetarily and artistically. More than $40,000 in endorsement fees and donations, a similar profit in our online store (questioncopyright.com), plus many translations and transformative uses. We actively promote this model to other artists. * "Creator-Endorsed Mark": links authors to distributors while separating attribution from copying -- a key goal of our reframing efforts. Cited in a PBS MediaShift article on free distribution. In 2011, we received a $10,000 unrestricted grant from the Kahle/Austin Foundation. Our project also produces revenue beyond grants: our online store is profitable, through revenue-sharing agreements with artists. As the number of artists increases, we expect increases in both grants and sales. We look forward to describing more of our initiatives in a full application. As accurate evaluation is crucial to effectiveness, we will seek outside advice on measuring our progress. The metrics we currently use or plan to use include: changes in journalistic and legislative language around copyright issues, as tracked by our Media Watch project; Minute Memes uses; more use of the SDP and Creator-Endorsed strategies among artists; more philanthropic organizations requiring fundees to release under free distribution terms; etc. The momentum of the open source software movement and of independent artists is a tremendous opening; the time is ripe for a participatory reframing effort, and the Knight Foundation has shown its support for such connective projects in the past, for example in DocumentCloud, MediaBugs, and the Tides Center. We believe we are very well qualified for this one. We have established a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a successful online store, coordinated multiple volunteer efforts, and run a legal internship program. Our staff draws on its personal experience. Founder Karl Fogel is a well-known open source developer, author, and project manager. Our Artist-in-Residence is award-winning animator Nina Paley, our counsel is prominent free software lawyer Karen Sandler, and our board of directors includes musicians, librarians, and Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle; see questioncopyright.org/who for more. We work regularly and productively with related organizations -- such as the Internet Archive, Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public Knowledge -- but we are aware of no other organization undertaking a consistent and sustained reframing effort similar to ours. These ideas need the best representation they can get. We would like to provide that representation. Thank you for your consideration.