Though initially critical of the McCain campaign’s request for special treatment, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has echoed parts of a letter to YouTube by calling for immediate fair use review of videos uploaded to the site upon the receipt of a counter-notice to a DMCA takedown notice.
Last week, general counsel for the McCain campaign sent a letter to YouTube requesting the video-sharing site be quicker about honoring counter-notices sent from major networks—the networks were forcing down campaign ads featuring short clips from news broadcasts. The campaign also asked that political campaign videos be moved to the front of the alleged copyright infringement line because it is election season, and not to wait the 10-14 days allotted to them to respond.
YouTube fired a lawyer-crafted response telling the campaign basically to shove it. No special treatment, and no way were they risking liability by sailing the murky waters of the fair use doctrine when even judges can’t seem to agree upon what constitutes fair use and what doesn’t.
Shortly after word got out that the McCain campaign petitioned YouTube for expedited legal consideration, the EFF’s Fred Von Lohmann characterized the campaign’s wishes as “precisely backwards” and thought they should direct their attention to TV networks.
“Let’s start by identifying the real villains here: the major news media outlets,” wrote Von Lohmann. “They are the ones censoring these political ads, based on the use of a few seconds of their footage. The networks need to back off and give fair use a wide berth. So let’s start by shaming the bad guys here. In addition, lawsuits might help. Under the DMCA, both the campaigns themselves and YouTube have standing to sue those who send clearly bogus takedown notices.”
Today, Von Lohmann’s name appears on a press release not reversing any criticism, but calling for YouTube to take a firmer stance against TV networks abusing the DMCA, a similar petition to the campaign’s. Blaming networks CBS, the Christian Broadcast Network, Fox and NBC as the main aggressors, Von Lohmann called on YouTube to do quick fair use reviews of all videos targeted by these networks.
“In clear cases of fair use, YouTube should stand firmly behind the interests of its user community,” said von Lohmann. “YouTube has nothing to fear by hosting videos that do not infringe anyone’s copyright.”
Von Lohmann characterized remixing the news to make a point “is what political speech looks like in the 21st century.”
