Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation launched a “Takedown Hall of Shame” for what it sees as egregious abuses of digital copyright regulations.
Traditionally the champions of Creative Commons and other, more open methods of IP protection and creative sharing of content online, EFF is now calling out a bevy of big-name media corporations to make examples of them for takedown abuse. According to the EFF blog, “Some of the web’s most interesting content has been yanked from popular websites with bogus copyright claims or other spurious legal threats.” Read on to see who made the list and why.
“Free speech in the 21st century often depends on incorporating video clips and other content from various sources,” explained EFF attorney Corynne McSherry. “It’s what The Daily Show with Jon Stewart does every night. This is fair use of copyrighted or trademarked material and protected under U.S. law.
“But that hasn’t stopped thin-skinned corporations and others from abusing the legal system to get these new works removed from the Internet. We wanted to document this censorship for all to see.”
Some of the entities that have made EFF’s roundup are as follows:
- NPR, for attempting to stifle a video criticizing same-sex marriage
- DeBeers, for its humorless response to an online parody
- NBC, for issuing a takedown for a satirical Obama video that went viral
- And a personal favorite, Ralph Lauren, who shot out a few takedowns after our good friends at Photoshop Disasters pointed out that, even in already thin models, a woman’s head is not likely to be wider than her pelvis
Other honorees include Warner Music Group, CBS News, Universal Music Publishing Group, and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
Is the EFF conducting a witchhunt here, dear readers? Are some of these copyright claims warranted? Or do you, in fact, have an egregious takedown of your own to report? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
