""You can't just take our people and create fake newscasts with them" (NBC DMCA's campaign ad)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Ethan Ackerman" <eackerma () u washington edu>
Date: October 1, 2008 4:00:55 PM EDT
To: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
Subject: ""You can't just take our people and create fake newscasts  
with them" (NBC DMCA's campaign ad)
Reply-To: eackerma () u washington edu

Greetings Dave,

Earlier today NBC issued a take down request to YouTube over an
official Obama ad that uses NBC news anchors to deliver a critical
"what-if" scenario based on a hypothetical McCain victory.  NBC
apparently disliked the way it was portrayed and wasn't successful in
getting the changes it wanted, so it issued a take down request.

There's a good summary at
http://washingtonindependent.com/9668/nbc-kills-obama-youtube-hit
and
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6600930.html  -
Clicking on the ad results in a warning that YouTube has pulled the
clip at NBC's request.

This is not even the first instance of a news broadcaster using the
DMCA to take down commentary or use of an interview or other news
reporting - see
http://theutubeblog.com/2008/09/10/cbs-sends-youtube-dmca-notice-over-john-mccains-unauthorized-use-of-katie-couric-segment-in-lipstick-on-a-pig-video/


The critical issue that this take down highlights is that this notice
process can effectively quash an ad for 2 whole WEEKS - a lifetime in
terms of presidential campaigning.



<Ethan's shameless, unaffiliated plug>
The EFF has long recognized just how destructive such a 2 week gag
rule can be, and has a whole program focusing on this DMCA "cone of
silence" called 'No downtime for free speech'  -
http://www.eff.org/issues/ip-and-free-speech
</plug>




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