Wednesday
Our Mission
Creative Rights provides free legal services, educational programs, and coordination of professional services to the creative community.
Who We Are and What We Do
Creative Rights is a community-based nonprofit organization providing free legal representation and coordination of support services to the creative community. We serve artists and creators throughout Michigan, with a focus on the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas.
Our vision is realizing the full potential of the creative community and sparking a renaissance in creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Too often artists overestimate the restrictiveness of the law and approach it only when in need of crisis management. Instead of viewing the law as an option of last resort, we believe it should be a tool available throughout the creative process that increases the number of choices available to creators, giving them a better understanding of the law and greater exposure to business models that may better fit their needs on a given project.
Creative Rights empowers emerging artists and creators by giving them affordable legal advice and representation from attorneys with a strong background in the arts. Our attorneys are committed to simplifying the law and making it more comprehensible in areas such as copyright, patent, trademark, licensing, and contracts. Creative Rights works with local arts organizations to integrate free legal services and the option to pursue alternative business models with existing professional development and learning opportunities. Creative Rights works with area universities and law schools to provide students with opportunities to gain hands-on experience working with artists and to encourage the development of entrepreneurial and professional skills. Creative Rights also works in conjunction with national arts, technology, and IP-related organizations in order to implement its community-based pilot programs.
Our vision is realizing the full potential of the creative community and sparking a renaissance in creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Too often artists overestimate the restrictiveness of the law and approach it only when in need of crisis management. Instead of viewing the law as an option of last resort, we believe it should be a tool available throughout the creative process that increases the number of choices available to creators, giving them a better understanding of the law and greater exposure to business models that may better fit their needs on a given project.
Creative Rights empowers emerging artists and creators by giving them affordable legal advice and representation from attorneys with a strong background in the arts. Our attorneys are committed to simplifying the law and making it more comprehensible in areas such as copyright, patent, trademark, licensing, and contracts. Creative Rights works with local arts organizations to integrate free legal services and the option to pursue alternative business models with existing professional development and learning opportunities. Creative Rights works with area universities and law schools to provide students with opportunities to gain hands-on experience working with artists and to encourage the development of entrepreneurial and professional skills. Creative Rights also works in conjunction with national arts, technology, and IP-related organizations in order to implement its community-based pilot programs.
Tuesday
Services and Programs
Creative Rights has 3 core service areas:
1. Long-Term Legal Representation
Creative Rights provides qualifying members with full-scale, comprehensive representation. This may be on a short-term project-based level. But, we also provide long-term representation in which we serve in a general-counsel type role (primarily to organizations). We are a multi-disciplinary practice, so we look to coordinate with professionals and students from a range of disciplines when doing so benefits our client's legal needs. We have two full-time lawyers dedicated to serving the needs of our clients, however, we cannot guarantee that we will have the capacity to take on every project, nor the expertise. We do not maintain a referral service (i.e. we don't take money for sending artists to lawyers). But we do maintain excellent relations with entertainment lawyers in the area, and in such situations, we will do our best to place our members with an affordable attorney who shares the same core-values and dedication to artists' rights as we do.
2. Educational Workshops and Legal Clinics
Creative Rights provides the creative community with educational presentations and workshops and a one-of-a-kind legal clinic. We cover a broad range of topics relevant to the creative community's legal needs, such as: "Copyright Basics," "Understanding Fair Use," "When Do I Need to See an Attorney," and "Negotiating Contracts." And we are always open to covering new topics. Our workshops include skill-building exercises for creators, such as mock contract negotiations and licensing/fair use issue-spotting drills.
Our legal clinics are provided in conjunction with a workshop or presentation and offer participants the opportunity to receive one-on-one legal counseling in the style of a traditional 30-minute walk-up clinic. Creative Rights staff and volunteer attorneys provide the counseling service for smaller audiences. But for larger audiences, Creative Rights brings in teams of law school students. This program is unlike anything else offered in the state and provides law students with an opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience working with artists and dealing with entertainment law issues. Students also receive client counseling training and receive background education on complex IP and entertainment law issues.
3. Web Applications Fostering Legal Accessibility
Creative Rights is currently involved in two long-term projects that have the potential to dramatically increase artists' and consumers' access to legal information. We are working with University of Michigan Law faculty as well as lawyers and law students. We seek to take scholarly work out of the realm of academia and to work with both lawyers and programers to develop powerful, user-friendly applications.
1. Long-Term Legal Representation
Creative Rights provides qualifying members with full-scale, comprehensive representation. This may be on a short-term project-based level. But, we also provide long-term representation in which we serve in a general-counsel type role (primarily to organizations). We are a multi-disciplinary practice, so we look to coordinate with professionals and students from a range of disciplines when doing so benefits our client's legal needs. We have two full-time lawyers dedicated to serving the needs of our clients, however, we cannot guarantee that we will have the capacity to take on every project, nor the expertise. We do not maintain a referral service (i.e. we don't take money for sending artists to lawyers). But we do maintain excellent relations with entertainment lawyers in the area, and in such situations, we will do our best to place our members with an affordable attorney who shares the same core-values and dedication to artists' rights as we do.
2. Educational Workshops and Legal Clinics
Creative Rights provides the creative community with educational presentations and workshops and a one-of-a-kind legal clinic. We cover a broad range of topics relevant to the creative community's legal needs, such as: "Copyright Basics," "Understanding Fair Use," "When Do I Need to See an Attorney," and "Negotiating Contracts." And we are always open to covering new topics. Our workshops include skill-building exercises for creators, such as mock contract negotiations and licensing/fair use issue-spotting drills.
Our legal clinics are provided in conjunction with a workshop or presentation and offer participants the opportunity to receive one-on-one legal counseling in the style of a traditional 30-minute walk-up clinic. Creative Rights staff and volunteer attorneys provide the counseling service for smaller audiences. But for larger audiences, Creative Rights brings in teams of law school students. This program is unlike anything else offered in the state and provides law students with an opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience working with artists and dealing with entertainment law issues. Students also receive client counseling training and receive background education on complex IP and entertainment law issues.
3. Web Applications Fostering Legal Accessibility
Creative Rights is currently involved in two long-term projects that have the potential to dramatically increase artists' and consumers' access to legal information. We are working with University of Michigan Law faculty as well as lawyers and law students. We seek to take scholarly work out of the realm of academia and to work with both lawyers and programers to develop powerful, user-friendly applications.
Saturday
Our Philosophy
As the law adapts to technological and social developments in the digital age, it is essential that the legal community embrace creators to ensure they understand the law as an empowering, rather than impeding, force. It is also important that, given the current economic climate in Michigan, we do not allow a gap to develop in which emerging creators do not have access to affordable and friendly legal services. The development of such a gap, along with the dearth of alternative business models addressing the increasingly blurred creator/consumer distinction, stunts creativity from an early stage of professional development, and could threaten to stifle the creative potential of generations to come.
Creative Rights will offer a blend of services unlike anything currently offered in the region. Creative Rights’ brand of “unbundled” legal services will provide clients with a cheap, friendly, and individually-tailored legal experience. In all aspects of our services, the Creative Rights ethos that both legal assistance and the creative process are collaborative, community-driven enterprises, will be present.
Creative Rights believes in a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to client representation and project development. The services offered for any given project are tailored to the needs of the client and the demands of the specific project. Creative Rights maintains a flexible roster of affiliates that contribute to project support, including individuals, organizations, and schools.
Creative Rights will offer a blend of services unlike anything currently offered in the region. Creative Rights’ brand of “unbundled” legal services will provide clients with a cheap, friendly, and individually-tailored legal experience. In all aspects of our services, the Creative Rights ethos that both legal assistance and the creative process are collaborative, community-driven enterprises, will be present.
Creative Rights believes in a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to client representation and project development. The services offered for any given project are tailored to the needs of the client and the demands of the specific project. Creative Rights maintains a flexible roster of affiliates that contribute to project support, including individuals, organizations, and schools.
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