McCain Demands Fairer Copyright Rules For Political Videos

by Mike Godfrey, for LawAndTax-News.com, Washington

27 October 2008

United States Senator John McCain has launched a protest against online video site, YouTube, after several of his campaign videos were banned for breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

YouTube removed Senator McCain's campaign videos after some individuals complained that required copyright permissions had not been obtained, stating that the inclusion of news reports contained in some of the video remixes breached the "fair use" rules set out by American copyright law.

McCain's campaign entourage has now sent a letter to YouTube arguing that the removal of campaign videos is unfair, and that the company should relax its rigid copyright infringement rules.

General counsel for the McCain campaign, Trevor Potter, argues that YouTube is now restricting the rights politicians have to free speech by inhibiting the use of campaign material. Mr Potter says that the banning of videos which contain short clips of news footage used as a means of example or to create a basis for further commentary is completely unnecessary as there is no copyright law against using material of this nature in such a way.

Other videos were removed for failing to obtain permission from music companies for the use of certain songs as soundtracks.

YouTube has become one of the biggest channels for expressing political opinion during this year's presidential campaign, and candidates are now worried about the consequences the removal of such videos will have on campaign outcomes.

However, YouTube has responded by stating that they are merely abiding by the copyright laws imposed on them, and that preferential treatment cannot be given to government figures, regardless of power or position.

U-Tube says that requests to overlook DCMA rules by Mr McCain or other political figures cannot be granted unless they themselves change the law and permit the use of remixed videos.

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