Congress Critters Invest In Big Companies; News At Eleven

EFF, ACLU Ask News Networks To Stop Sending DMCA Takedown Notices On Political Videos

from the right-idea,-wrong-approach dept

Tue, Oct 21st 2008 2:33am — Mike Masnick

Following the McCain campaign's request to YouTube that it exempt both major presidential campaigns from the traditional process of notice-and-takedown to DMCA complaints (which YouTube rejected), the EFF and the ACLU have sent a letter to the various television networks who were responsible for the takedowns in the first place, asking them to stop sending bogus takedowns. On top of that, they ask YouTube to reconsider and start responding to counternotices and putting content back online more quickly.

While I can appreciate the stance taken by the EFF and the ACLU, and believe that they are correct that the networks' takedown notices are incorrect, I'm going to have to side with Public Citizen in suggesting that the real answer to this issue is fixing the DMCA, not through asking various parties to simply change their behavior. The real problem is the DMCA and the unclear boundaries of fair use today. While there's clearly not time to fix the law prior to election day, it doesn't seem right to just ask people to ignore the way the law works today. If the law is the problem, fix the law -- don't ask everyone else to play by different rules. That just sweeps the problems of the law under the rug, where they'll get a lot less attention.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: aclu, copyright, dmca, eff, takedowns

10 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

matt, 21 Oct 2008 @ 5:03am

eh
I doubt the companies they sent the letters to even got a glance from corporate. Networks know exactly what they are doing and why they are letting their lawyers go ballistic on the slightest possibility of infringement (if they even wait for that much info).

ethics + plausible deniability = sorry, what were you accusing me of? I didn't do that, you have no proof.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Matthew, 21 Oct 2008 @ 5:19am

Stopgap Measure
I agree that the full solution is to repair or repeal the DMCA. On the other hand, if the operation of the law is interfering with the dissemination of information that is relevant to the presidential election, which will be over LONG before the law can be changed, then it is worthwhile to promote a behavioural change for the time being.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2008 @ 6:17am
  
  Re: Stopgap Measure
  So you're saying that the law maker that is FINALLY getting a taste of what John Q. Public is suffering though, should be exempt from the laws he's supporting and creating? Wouldn't this be a great thing for McCain to lose this election, blame DMCA and start a mission to resend DMCA establishing a more fair policy for fair use?
  
  I mean don't get me wrong, I think it's wrong for people to download any and all music they listen to with out paying for it. Or to burn netflix movies so they don't have to pay full price. But I also think its wrong for me to be required to buy a second, third, or fourth copy of a movie I paid for already because I was not allowed to make a backup copy for my children to watch, keeping the original safe. Or sampling an entire album to verify that its all good and I'm not spending $17 for one song.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2008 @ 6:44am
    
    Re: Re: Stopgap Measure
    And until the industry provides a means of legitimate back up and viable sampling for the whole album, feel free to do what the rest of the world is doing and 'pirate' before you buy.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2008 @ 7:54am
    
    Re: Re: Stopgap Measure
    "So you're saying that the law maker that is FINALLY getting a taste of what John Q. Public is suffering though, should be exempt from the laws he's supporting and creating? Wouldn't this be a great thing for McCain to lose this election, blame DMCA and start a mission to resend DMCA establishing a more fair policy for fair use?"
    
    What a deal, we get a fixed DMCA in return for a broken country let by "the one". PASS
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2008 @ 5:46am

well hopefully the news networks will have a similar response to youtube's, perhaps that would encourage the EFF and the ACLU to push for an update to the DMCA.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Benjie, 21 Oct 2008 @ 6:15am

Takes downs
Just require a judge and jury before a take down notice is sent out.. problem solved
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2008 @ 6:45am
  
  Re: Takes downs
  That seems like a really good idea. Make it so that sending a takedown notice requires almost as much red tape as getting a warrant (though publicly available) and you'll have far less FUD takedowns.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
chris (profile), 21 Oct 2008 @ 6:21am

fix the DMCA? yeah right.
the DMCA is too useful as a tool to limit free speech. there is no way it will be "fixed" in this lifetime.

too many people need the DMCA to shutdown criticism, dissent, and satire for it to be changed in any meaningful way.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2008 @ 7:49am

If youtube and the broadcasting companies were smart they'd deny all requests and tell them "sorry, this is the law thats in place so its what we have to do". Then maybe the law would get looked at. Maybe.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]