via email, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 1/26/07:
Bogus Copyright Infringement Claims Violate Law
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned ABC,
Inc. Thursday not to pursue its bogus copyright infringement claims
against 'Spocko' -- a blogger who sparked nationwide debate over a San
Francisco radio station -- and asked the media giant to retract its
baseless threats.
The free speech battle began when Spocko posted audio clips of what
he deemed to be offensive talk-radio rhetoric from ABC-owned and San
Francisco-based KSFO-AM on his blog at www.spockosbrain.com.
In response, ABC, Inc. sent a threatening letter to the blogger's
hosting company, claiming that copyright law prevented Spocko from
posting the clips. The hosting company responded by shutting Spocko's
website down, forcing him to move to a different provider. In a letter
sent to ABC, Inc. Thursday, EFF warned that further false copyright
claims could compel Spocko to take action to protect his free speech
rights.
"Copyright law is not designed to silence speech that you dislike,"
said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "ABC and KSFO know that their
legal threats were absolutely groundless. Their time and efforts are
better spent explaining why they think Spocko is wrong, and letting the
public decide, instead of resorting to thuggish legal tactics."
EFF's letter to ABC is the latest development in its ongoing
campaign to protect online free speech from the chilling effects of
bogus copyright claims. In November, EFF reached an agreement with the
corporate owners of the popular children's television character Barney
the Purple Dinosaur to withdraw meritless legal threats against a
website publisher who parodied the character.
For the full letter to ABC:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/spocko/spockolettertoabc.pdf
For more on Spocko:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/spocko/
more from the NYTimes [Select]:
Bloggers Take On Talk Radio Hosts
By NOAM COHEN
Published: January 15, 2007
A San Francisco talk radio station pre-empted three hours of
programming on Friday in response to a campaign by bloggers who have
recorded extreme comments by several hosts and passed on digital copies
to advertisers.
The lead blogger, who uses the name Spocko,
said that he and other bloggers had contacted more than 30 advertisers
on KSFO-AM to inform them of comments made on the air and to ask them
to pull their ads.
The comments were also posted on Spocko's
Web site, spockosbrain.com. In response, ABC Radio Networks, which owns
KSFO and which in turn is owned by the Walt Disney Company, sent
letters to the site's service provider, demanding the clips be taken
down from its servers. The provider complied, raising the issue of what
constitutes fair use of copyrighted material by a critic.
In an
unusual cap to a simmering controversy, four talk radio hosts at
KSFO-AM themselves played the clips on Friday, which had, in some
cases, drawn national attention for language considered racially
insensitive, religiously intolerant or containing violent imagery. The
broadcast contained the occasional carefully measured apology for
language that ''could have been put more elegantly,'' as one host,
Melanie Morgan, described her comment -- ''We've got a bull's eye
painted on her big wide laughing eyes'' -- about Nancy Pelosi, the
Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, who is from San
Francisco. ''But Ms. Morgan added that her words were obviously a
political metaphor that had to be distorted by critics to appear
violent. [...]