Atheists Charge Christian Group with DMCA Abuse
Creationist vs. Atheist YouTube War Marks New Breed of Copyright Claim.
According to Wired, the DMCA is now being used as a tool in religious wars. The Rational Response Squad had posted several critical videos that used Creation Science Evangelism ministry owned content. The latter reported to YouTube that they violated copyright law; YouTube took down the videos and even suspended the RRS’s account. According to an EEF attorney, the material was “clearly fair use” and CSE’s claim was “clearly bogus.”
It is also likely that the group disclaimed copyright in the materials; although they have now edited their site to state that copyright was placed on all materials in 2005. Those who have taken copyright can help me out here, but I believe you cannot rescind something from the public domain; assuming the screen shot is genuine, they are attempting a slight of hand by back-dating it.
This brings up interesting issues that we discussed in the first week about the wisdom of DMCA procedures that might lead to a “chilling effect.” Here, the concern is deepened – could the quick take down response that the safe harbor provisions incentivise be subject to more than just the haste and zealousness of the entertainment industry, but to targeted misuse?
Wired’s take:
“As more people catch on to how useful YouTube can be for delivering political, religious and cultural messages, DMCA claims are likely to increase. With news cycles moving at light-speed, an illegal copyright claim might well suppress unwanted news long enough to distort coverage. And if previous incidents are any indication, the issues involved could get much weightier, especially in an election year.”
Here, one could place more responsibilityon YouTube for failure to investigate before the takedown. Instead of a list of hundreds from a major content owner, you have at most a few dozen videos in the report. Of course, those videos are still aggregated with the mass of requests from other sources. You also run the risk of running too far the other way – giving a wide berth to major companies, and unequal protection to smaller copyright owners.
Once again, we are dealing with a legally-savvy recipient of a takedown notice; there may be many such takedowns that we are not hearing about.
The videos, and the atheists’ accounts, have been reinstated. The RRS is planning legal action. Such suits are not unprecedented: in 2004 Diebold falsely claimed copyright over leaked internal emails, and attempted to get them removed from the internet. Like our author friend Mr. Field, they ended up paying damages and penalties for their bogus copyright claims.
With cases such as these, perhaps there is a counter to the chilling effect of widespread DMCA claims. If copyright abuse can be charged independently in response to a takedown notice, instead of solely as sanctions on a plaintiff, it will give attorneys another reason to pause before sending cease and desist letters.