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• @chilehead9: Almost...
  
  The problem is not that McCain's video effectively violated any copyright, the problem is that it's not relevant whether they did. It's so easy to abuse the DMCA, it's almost designed to make it hard to defend from them.
  
  The issue with McCain's response is that they are claiming that political campaigning should be somehow prioritized. Google's first response firmly stated that they can't make exceptions[1], and rightly so. The OP claimed that any privilege would not only be unfair to any non-politician, but also nullify the little incentive they have to make things right (which is, to destroy DMCA in its present form).
  
  The fact that Obama's campaign has not suffered from this joke of a law is not indicative of any attack on their part. Furthermore, I think these DMCA takedown notices are publicly available so that should be easy to prove or refute (note: I haven't even searched for them, as I don't find them relevant).
  
  Focusing on who sent those notices only distracts people from the 4-letter problem: the DMCA...
  
  One last thing -- let me highlight one false statement, or at least a really ignorant one, found in the campaign's letter[2]: "YouTube has nothing to fear by hosting non-infringing videos, let alone by reposting them much sooner than 10 days". As YouTube explained in theirs, finding whether a file is infringing is not something feasible by them, and, it only takes them to do that once to find themselves in a legal hell, where they would be held accountable for their decision which will surely differ from some judge around the US. Thus, their footnote saying "In our experience, copyright holder OFTEN back down [...]" is simply insufficient.
  
  
  
  [1] http://www.scribd.com/doc/6827635/YouTube-Response-to-Sen-McCain (last paragraph on second page)
  [2] http://lessig.org/blog/YouTube%20copyright%20letter%2010.13.08.pdf
  
  -- nachokb In reply to: "McCain seeks special 'fair use' copyright rules for VIPs"

  October 21, 2008

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