Harvard University’s “Fair Use Week” features Associate Professor Rebekah Modrak’s lecture about her use of fair use to challenge a cease-and-desist letter and to publish her work. “Fair Use Week” is a week-long celebration of fair use.
“Rebekah Modrak, Associate Professor, School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, recounts the challenges she encountered after creating a work of art that incorporated 3rd party copyrighted material. In 2013, she founded Re Made Co., a “company” that parodies the urban woodsman aesthetic of Best Made Co, which markets designer axes through the rhetoric of authenticity, the appropriation of working-class identities, and the revitalization of traditional male roles.
After receiving a cease-and-desist letter, she turned for advice to College Art Association (CAA), which connected her with legal advice about fair use at the University of Michigan.”