Why Is The Federal Government Running Ads Secretly Created & Owned By NBC Universal?

from the so-that's-how-it-works... dept

We certainly suspected this when New York City first announced that it was running a series of silly and misleading videos as part of a media campaign to "Stop Piracy in NYC," but now it's been confirmed that these videos were not, in fact, New York City's, but are purely NBC Universal's. At the time, NYC had "thanked" NBC Universal (among others), but had not admitted that NBC Universal "owned" and had created the videos themselves. However, in response to one of the Freedom of Information requests that I filed with New York City, the city noted that the videos are property of NBC Universal. I had asked for any licensing info between NYC and Homeland Security/ICE because ICE was using the same videos. Since NYC had clearly suggested that those videos were the creation of the NYC government, I assumed that ICE must have licensed the videos from NYC. However, NYC responded to my request by saying that there was no such info to hand over, because it did not license the videos to Homeland Security. And the reason was that NYC did not own the videos:

The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment has no records responsive to your request. Please note that NBC Universal owns the material, not the City of New York.

That's fascinating information. Of course, I had also filed a separate FOI request for any info on the licensing agreement between NYC and NBC Universal. As of this writing there has been no response from NYC, in violation of New York State's Freedom of Information Law, which requires a response within 5 business days (we're way beyond that).

Still, at least give NYC credit for making it clear that NBC Universal had a hand in the creation of the videos, even if it left out the rather pertinent information that it created and owned the videos. While I find it immensely troubling that a municipal government would run PSAs created by corporate interests (without making that clear), I'm extremely troubled by the news that the federal government would run those same videos with absolutely no mention of the fact that the videos were created and owned by a private corporation with a tremendous stake in the issue.

Could you imagine how the press would react if, say, the FDA ran PSAs that were created and owned by McDonald's without making that clear to the public? How about if the Treasury Department ran a PSA created and owned by Goldman Sachs? So, shouldn't we be asking serious questions about why Homeland Security and ICE are running a one-sided, misleading corporate propaganda video, created and owned by a private company, without mentioning the rather pertinent information of who made it?

Does Homeland Security work for the US public... or for NBC Universal?

Filed Under: government, ice, psa
Companies: nbc universal

Instead Of Hiring Film Crew To Make PSA About Out Of Work Film Crews, ICE Just Reruns Someone Else's Video

from the wow. dept

Well, this is just bizarre. You may recall that late last year, NBC Universal worked with New York City to create a silly "anti-piracy" propaganda video that was not even close to accurate. It amusingly claimed that there is "no such thing as a free movie," while using YouTube, a free video platform... for free. We were left scratching our heads, a few weeks back, when pointing out that Homeland Security's ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) was now using the same video on its YouTube account -- stripped of all references to New York City.

Well, as part of World Intellectual Property Day, ICE has flat out lied and is pretending that this video is a "new" PSA that it's put together, and which it will now be placing on the domains it illegally forfeits, without any sort of adversarial hearing.

Shouldn't we be just a bit concerned that Homeland Security's ICE group is placing a video, financed by NBC Universal, which makes blatantly false statements concerning copyright law and the impact of copyright infringement, on domains that it has seized illegally? Even worse, the press, who should know better, are simply parroting the claims from ICE that this is a new PSA from ICE. It's not. It's from NY City at the urging of NBC Universal. It's also not accurate.

Of course, what would be funny, if it weren't so sad, is that ICE's John Morton thinks that this video will "educate the general public about the real consequence of IP theft." That's doubtful. As has been explained over and over again -- including in the recent SSRC report -- the issue is not education at all, but better business models. This kind of propaganda is simply laughable and its insulting that Morton thinks the American public is so stupid as to be fooled by false statements about intellectual property.

In the meantime, though, can we point out the serious irony here: ICE and the feds are apparently too freaking cheap to pay for the creation of their own anti-piracy PSA about putting video crew people out of work. Yes, ICE could have hired a nice film crew, like the one in the video that will be put out of work due to "piracy." But, instead, it just used a video that was already made... meaning it didn't actually help put anyone to work. The film crew that the Stop Piracy in NYC site originally highlighted as being at risk due to piracy... are they getting any money from ICE?

Filed Under: ice, nyc, psa
Companies: nbc universal

Uploader Of Guns 'N Roses Album Never Forced To Do RIAA Propaganda; So He Tells The Truth Instead

from the well-how-about-that dept

A year ago, we wrote about the ridiculous situation involving Kevin Cogill, who was sentenced to two months of house arrest. We noted, at the time, that part of the agreement was also that he would produce propaganda for the RIAA. However, a year has passed and he never did the propaganda recording... and he's no longer required to do it. Instead, he's doing interviews where he's saying that people involved in file sharing can get "F'd in the A" by the RIAA. Not quite what the RIAA expected, I guess.

Amusingly, the RIAA's response was that it chose not to have Cogill make the propaganda tapes because of the "unnecessarily high production costs." Leave it to the RIAA -- the organization that pays its boss over $2 million and spends millions on lawsuits that bring nothing back -- to think it's too expensive to record a guy talking. But, perhaps it's telling. Maybe the folks at the RIAA really don't recognize the revolution in recording equipment that makes it rather cheap to record things these days. No wonder their strategy has been so screwed up!

Filed Under: guns 'n roses, kevin cogill, psa, riaa
Companies: riaa