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John McCain battles YouTube

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Business and Law
By Samantha Rose Hunt   
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 12:03
Chicago (IL) - Trevor Potter, general counsel for the McCain-Palin campaign sent a letter to YouTube chief executive officer Chad Hurley complaining that McCain commercials have been inappropriately removed from the site.

The commercials in question contain bits and pieces of televised news broadcasts. The clips used were no longer than 10 seconds each, and they were used merely as a starting point for commentary and analysis in regards to issues being presented in the media. The news organizations whose clips were embedded apparently referred to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and demanded that the commercials be pulled from YouTube, because they were in violation of copyrights.

Potter’s letter first sings YouTube’s praises as he describes it as a “platform for political candidates and the American public to post, view, share, discuss, comment on, mash-up, re-mix, and argue over campaign related videos.” He then goes on to say that the news clips that were utilized were used fairly and therefore are not able to be controlled by the organizations holding the copyright.

In one instance, CBS anchor Katie Couric was featured speaking about sexism in regards to Hillary Clinton. CBS feels that the utilization of the clip implies that they are somehow endorsing the McCain campaign.

The McCain camp’s biggest complaint was that the copyright act does not favor the user of the material, but usually the copyright owner. If the video creator feels that their video has been pulled inappropriately, the act doesn’t give them any wiggle room in trying to get the video put back up before a period of ten to fourteen days.

Potter’s proposition was that YouTube would be responsible for reviewing the demands of individuals who wish for politicians to remove their videos, he wants YouTube responsible for determining whether or not the copyrighted material is actually covered by the fair use exemption. However, the majority of Internet sites do not want the responsibility of casting judgment in any sort of legal dispute.


Our take

The letter from the campaign could be considered quite ironic. McCain voted for the DMCA, and he opposes legislation to enforce network neutrality and now favors free speech on the Internet. How convenient. Originally, the DMCA was designed for all of the larger media companies. And suddenly, fair use is not necessary when you’re talking about someone’s political campaign.

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