Tuesday Night Video – Shame on YouTube
April 24, 2012 8 Comments
When Rush Limbaugh went after Sandra Fluke, Daily Kos employed fair use in order to put together a compilation of Limbaugh’s 53 attacks and post it on YouTube. Yesterday, YouTube informed Daily Kos that they were pulling the clip due to a copyright claim by Rush’s minions. It’s disappointing to see YouTube act against the use of fair use in a clear case of journalism. Kos has complained, but in the meantime they have posted the video on Vimeo for old time’s sake.
About Matthew
Isn’t Rush complaining about others playing intimidation tactics these days, all the while stomping on fair use? What a rancid pile of puss!
I titled this “Shame on YouTube” rather than “Shame on Rush Limbaugh” because I figure that Rush is probably incapable of shame.
Lol, very smart move there,
The first three YouTube hits from a search on “limbaugh” are him ranting about Fluke.
Adding “Daily Kos” brings up at least four versions of what appears to be the same 7:07 video you’ve linked to, including one titled “53 of Rush Limbaugh’s most vile smears against Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke,”
Not that pulling the original clip was right, but YouTube doesn’t seem to be trying very hard to keep people from posting fair-use clips of Limbaugh on Fluke.The attempted censorship is gaining Limbaugh only more bad publicity.
YouTube may not be going above and beyond Limbaugh’s request, but I also don’t think it tried very hard to see whether the Kos posting constituted fair use.
I’d have to look it up (hard to do now as I’m on my phone) but I think they have a history of not backing up fair use. It’s not their concern, and given their prominence in the distribution of media, that concerns me more than whether or not people know about Rush’s attacks on Fluke.
Actually, it’s pretty ironic, ain’t it, that Daily Kos, who created the video, can’t post it due to “copyright infringement,” but there’s no problem with other people posting Kos’s video. It’s the standard Google assumption–accurate in this case–that unless the creator of something explicitly states otherwise, the creator wants it made available through Google products. One result of that questionable assumption apparently is that they have to set the bar pretty low when infringement is claimed. To get into fights about whether or not they have the right to make X available would draw attention to the fact that they probably don’t have the rights to a lot of the stuff they’re making available.
I think that’s very much it. It’s easier for Google to set a low bar and abdicate responsibility, rather than to spend time, money, and thought in protecting either copyright or fair use.
Thanks for the link. Bookmarked.