The Learned Fangirl


"We write about issues of fan culture, intellectual property, and political media economy for fun."

Author: "Raizel Liebler and Keidra Chaney are two pop-culture loving fangirls who went to grad school to study law and media studies, respectively."

Blawg Related Categories: Intellectual Property Law • Copyright Law • Media & Communications Law

Recent Posts from The Learned Fangirl


  • One Nation Under a Groove: Intellectual Property and Hip Hop

    When is something a quotation or a reference and when is it a sample that needs to be licensed? According to a recent Sixth Circuit decision regarding Atomic Dog, Bridgeport Music v. BMG Recordings, No.…

  • I Read a Book: Greg Kot’s Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music

    Greg Kot’s Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music is a must-read for those interested in how economics combined with listener actions have led the traditional music industry to its present morass. And therefore, the…

  • TLF at New Music Seminar: Chicago

    I was lucky enough to score a guest invitation to the New Music Seminar thanks to social media goddess Leah Jones of Natiiv Arts and Media. Being a semi-professional fangirl/full – on professional social media person…

  • Guest Blogger V. Obarski: Gender and gaming

    A (admittedly late – sorry!) recap of last summer’s Gen Con from guest blogger V. Obarski. Thanks! Like many women who attend gaming convention Gen Con, I was introduced to gaming through my husband. But…

  • Commercial versus Non Commercial use?

    Due to the difficult line determining what is commercial and non-commercial use of copyrighted materials, Creative Commons has recently completed a study regarding this issue — with surveys of both content creators and users (PDF…

  • I read some books: Copyright Blues

    This was supposed to be a book review of William Patry’s new book, Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars. However, while reading this book, I kept thinking back to Mark Helprin’s Digital Barbarism. Patry looks…

  • Copyright Hall of Janus? : Harvard University’s Two-Faced Approach to Copyright

    Harvard University recently has taken two very divergent approaches to copyright. I commend Harvard on the one hand for their open access policy, and on the other hand, I am shocked by a complete disregard…

  • Introducing TLF Guest Bloggers!

    So for the past few months here at The Learned Fangirl, we’d been mulling over inviting guest bloggers to join us and chime in on social media/political economy/cultural studies/fangirl issues that were important to them.…

  • The Ethics of Studying Social Media and Online Communities

    After the horrible nightmare that was Loyola professor Dr. David Myers’ study in the City of Heroes online community, I started thinking about the ethical challenges that face researchers wanting to do studies using virtual…

  • I read a book: A bitchen read: Frederick Kohner’s Gidget

    Once again, there may be another Gidget remake — the type that stars Miley Cyrus or other starlets of her ilk in a “fun on the beach” movie. Before Gidget became shorthand for cheesy beach…