Go EFF!
My material at Rabbit Bites is clearly fair use, a satire published at sites like Salon.com that vetted the material for copyright violations. Even so, I have suffered from automated tools that scanned YouTube and then falsely identified some of my videos as infringing. While it is understandable why this kind of program would be desirable to copyright holders, and YouTube, it clearly does not work except with a very heavy hand, unable distinuish between fair use and abuse. This is very chilling to free speech.
Today, I read in ReadWriteWeb:
The organization has put
out a call to people who have had videos taken off of YouTube at the
behest of Warner and whose videos were both noncommercial and
substantially original. The EFF says it will help serve a counter
notice and offer legal protection to as many people as it can. “We
can’t promise to take every case,” they say, “but neither will we stand
by and watch semi-automated takedowns trample fair use.”
It’s limited, but at least it’s a start, and puts an end to bullying by companies with money for fancy software!
