fair use

Copyright owners, such as NBC Universal, Warner Bros., and Viacom, were put on notice Wednesday when U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled that they must not order video be removed from Web sites indiscriminately. Before taking action against a clip, copyright owners, must form a "good-faith belief " that a video is infringing, according to Corynne McSherry, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

EFF represents the Pennsylvania woman who sued Universal Music Group for demanding that YouTube remove her clip, which featured her infant son dancing to 30 seconds of the Prince song "Let's Go Crazy." EFF has always argued that the video was a "textbook" example of fair use and Universal Music should have recognized that.
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"The DMCA absolutely anticipated this very scenario," Litvack said. "Universal said she infringed on her copyright and sent a take-down notice. She then has an opportunity to appeal to YouTube (counter-notification remedy), which is what she sought and the video was restored."

But McSherry of EFF argues that the counter-notification remedy doesn't protect people from unfounded claims and puts the onus on them to prove their innocence. She remembers that before the DMCA, a media company that wanted someone to remove allegedly infringing material would first have to convince a judge and then obtain a temporary restraining order.

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Fogel agreed and the wrote: "The unnecessary removal of non-infringing material causes significant injury to the public where time-sensitive or controversial subjects are involved and the counter-notification remedy does not sufficiently address these harms."

CNET

What I am about to say may not be true, I may be reading my own bias into this, but what gives Universal or any corporation the right to "order" anyone but its own employees to do anything? I'm going to assume that that's just an unfortunate choice of a word by the reporter who wrote this story, because otherwise I might blow a gasket here.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that the DMCA has gone too far by enabling companies to intimidate websites into removing material poste haste with no concern for the rights of people who post to the sites. It's another instance of how we're all so afraid since 9-11 to act to our own better judgment and must always defer to the "authority" of someone who purports to be...

Oh, never mind. It all just pisses me off. That's all.

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slap on the wrist

FAA proposes $7.1 million fine against American
Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:24 pm PDT
Reuters - American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp (AMR.N), knowingly flew planes that needed safety repairs, the U.S. government charged on Thursday in a letter that proposed a $7.1 million fine against the carrier.

Uh-huh. See? I told you they were doing it. And, once again, instead of arresting the people responsible and sending them to jail, they opt to fine them. It's all a big shell game: If you get caught, it's going to cost you a little bit of money. What's $7 million to a multi-billion dollar company? And what kind of incentive is that to discourage corporate officers from breaking the rules again? They take a little bit of money away from them--and give it back in corporate welfare if the company gets itself into financial trouble. What a scam. Meanwhile, passengers risk their lives by flying.

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