DMCA As Censorship: Citibank Doesn't Want You To Remember What It Said About Obama's Bank Reform Policy

from the streisand-enters-stage-right dept

We've been discussing quite a bit lately how copyright law is often used not as a tool to provide incentive to create, but as a tool for censorship. Here's the latest example. John Bennett points us to the news that Citigroup filed a DMCA takedown request with Wordpress.com over the site LBO-news' 18-month old post that presented a copy of Citigroup's analysis of Obama's (then new) bank reform plan, which noted that it was actually quite bank-friendly. The key quote in the report: "the US government is following a relatively bank-friendly, investor-friendly approach."

Of course, these days, Wall Street is looking for more favors, and has been complaining about the regulations that the administration put on them as being too onerous. So, firms like Citigroup aren't too happy about anyone remembering the fact that it knew the regulations weren't at all onerous, but were extremely friendly to banks and Wall Street. So it issued the DMCA takedown on the report. Of course, as economist Brad DeLong has noted, this is clearly not about copyright issues. It's not a case where the infringement is harming the "market" for that report. The only reason to file a DMCA is to try to hide the report:
Today--nineteen months after this document was written--it is of historical interest only: none of Citigroup's paying clients would pay a cent for the information contained in it, for nobody could in any way profitably trade today on Citigroup's February 2009 analysis of the policies of the Geithner Treasury....

Whatever you think about the DMCA, it should not be used to prune the historical record of primary sources about how various economic policies were perceived at the time.
DeLong is now hosting the document himself (pdf), so if anyone wants to see what Citigroup would prefer you don't see, check it out (oh, whoops... or is that contributory infringement?).
Hide this

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: censorship, dmca
Companies: citigroup


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Sep 2010 @ 7:37am

    Streisand effect!!!

    Oh, and the pentagon finally burned those books. WHEW!!! I am so relieved that our borders are finally safe thanks to our government.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    milrtime83 (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 8:17am

    Correction:

    "So, firms like Citigroup aren't too happy about anyone remembering the fact that it new the regulations weren't at all onerous,"

    new = knew

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Greevar (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 8:20am

    Copyright IS censorship

    Anybody who has bothered to look up the history of copyright knows that copyright was, at its core, a method of censorship. This is not surprising in the least.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    pixelpusher220 (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 8:49am

    for nobody could in any way profitably trade today on Citigroup's February 2009 analysis of the policies of the Geithner Treasury

    well I suspect a Citibank 'competitor' could reasonably trade 'profitably' on negative Citibank information, no?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Overcast (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 8:50am

    More revisionist work.

    Despite whatever agenda they are working on, it's a crime to humanity to try and re-write history. Even if it's 'small'.

    And yes, copyright isn't about 'rights' it's about power and control.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bengie, 27 Sep 2010 @ 9:23am

    Frivolous

    They need to pass a law that Frivolous law suits are illegal and carry some huge fine/punishment.

    The abuse of a law should carry a fine horrible enough to make people scared to even attempt it.

    Like having your accounts frozen, or having half of your estate value donated to charities, but only charities with low management overhead.

    Obviously, it should never put someone out in the streets, but plenty of people can live on wages in the 30-40k range. So someone worth $1 billion can be just fine living on $500 million. Heck, should be able to live just fine on $1 million. They'll just have to move to a cheaper place.

    That sounds like a law I can live with. Abuse a law, and you forfeit all of your estates value, down to the last (10* average yearly income).

    The current average is ~$80k, so no matter how much they're worth, they'd only be left with $800k. That's plenty to live on.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Sep 2010 @ 11:07am

    One would think that 19 months ago, Citi's position was quite different than it is today. They may have been looking for Govt. help. Think they would come out and bite the hand that they were asking to help them at the time?

    Were I starving, I might thank you for feeding me crap. Were I rich, I would look at your offer and call it crap. Has anything changed besides my perspective?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      claygarden, 3 Oct 2010 @ 6:39am

      Re: perspective

      The satiated man and the hungry one do not see the same thing when they look upon a loaf of bread. -Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    iamtheky (profile), 27 Sep 2010 @ 12:09pm

    you got the missing letter

    but did you spot the missing word

    "that presented a copy a Citigroup analysis"

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Random Blowhard, 28 Sep 2010 @ 12:24am

    The bailouts will continue, the spice must flow, Citigroup is Too Big Too Fail, Congress is the property of Wall Street, 4 legs good, 2 legs bad. END

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.