How Dare You Share The Public Domain! You're Fired!

from the so-this-is-what-they-call-free-speech dept

It appears that, once again, the entertainment industry's efforts to educate everyone on their distorted view of intellectual property law is causing some problems. According to Copyfight, a radio host was recently fired for airing materials he had recorded off C-SPAN. C-SPAN, of course, makes no claim to the copyright on the audio they broadcast from Congress as it is, in fact, in the public domain. However, the radio station didn't seem to care, and assumed that it was a misuse of the material and promptly fired the radio host. And some wonder why there are people afraid of the ever-disappearing public domain.
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  • identicon
    Michael Vilain, 12 Apr 2005 @ 6:48pm

    And I assume that host's first step was...

    was to file a wrongful termination complaint with his local labor board. Failing that, I'm sure an enterprising attorney is just ready to educate the company, a judge, and jury on the definition of "public domain"

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      acb, 13 Apr 2005 @ 3:58am

      Re: And I assume that host's first step was...

      There is no such thing as "public domain". The idea that such a thing exists is Communist propaganda.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        muse, 13 Apr 2005 @ 3:01pm

        Re: And I assume that host's first step was...

        For the person that thinks there is no such thing as "public domain", explain that concept to the 65 yr old retiree who just had his boyhood home "stolen" from him because the "public" needs more airport runway space (or highway lanes, for that matter) to connect their "domains" together.
        Capitalism and Democracy are opposites just as 'private' and 'public' pretend to be.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chomper, 13 Apr 2005 @ 6:31am

    No Subject Given

    No, we're just more afraid of stupid people like the managers of that radio station.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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