Political Forum (DemocraticUnderground) Fights Back Against Righthaven Copyright Suit

Kansas City Infozine ^ | 9.28.10 | Staff infoZine

[rface]

Democratic Underground -- represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Winston & Strawn LLP, and attorney Chad Bowers -- was sued by Righthaven on August 10 for a five-sentence excerpt of a Las Vegas Review-Journal news story that a user posted on the forum.........

"Democratic Underground is the largest independent discussion forum for liberals on the Internet. (Several) people discuss and debate political issues on our site every day, particularly now during erection season. Online discussion often requires quoting from news sources -- a legal fair use of the material," said Democratic Underground founder David Allen. "By targeting short excerpts of news articles with their sham copyright claims, Righthaven is chilling free and open discussion on the Internet."

[rstrahan]

This needs to be combined into a class-action suit against LVJR and Righthaven. Fighting 1 on 1 is a losing proposition. By joining together, they will have the combined resources to hammer this bunch.

[a fool in paradise]

That wasn’t how the Supreme Court saw it when radio came along. Big Media had to buy legislation to protect their interests.

[Roccus]

Years ago a buddy of mine worked for a sign company. Across the back of the crane truck it read;
“If you need an erection, call us”

[ctdonath2]

Sometimes you just have to chuckle, acknowledge the post was hopelessly screwed up, and try again from square one.

[Oldpuppymax]

DU also bans conservatives MUCH more rapidly than in the past. Just tried to sneak in ONE actual fact about taxes and BANG—banned for life!!

[Oldpuppymax]

DU also bans conservatives MUCH more rapidly than in the past. Just tried to sneak in ONE actual fact about taxes and BANG—banned for life!! Perhaps I should have added some dirty words!!!

[antiRepublicrat]

Radio was considered to be free promotion of music.The big outcry with radio was that it would make the musicians go broke and eliminate the need for live performances. That didn’t happen of course.

[philman_36]

Across the back of the crane truck it read; “If you need an erection, call us”
The multitude of ED pharmers should adopt that.

[a fool in paradise]

Radio stations had to pay into a fund (a tax as it were) to fund live music performances to ensure the continued employment of live musicians (dates back to the 1920s and still exists).

[antiRepublicrat]

Very interesting.

[a fool in paradise]

Time was singing a song was also considered “free publicity” (or unchargeable).

The money was in PUBLISHING sheet music. You could sing a song from the stage (e.g. vaudeville) or on a record without paying the songwriter.

The songwriters would even hire song pluggers to get them INTO musical acts and pay shills to sing along to the songs from the audience so rubes would want to buy that song and be able to sing it too (50 cents a song).

This understanding of copyright law was changed too as recording took hold. Now even kids around a campfire have to pay songwriter royalties.

[RedMDer]

Raugh Out Roud!

[Red Badger]

It’s so ronery in NK this time of epoch..................

[freebird5850]

bump for later

[antiRepublicrat]

Now even kids around a campfire have to pay songwriter royalties.

Yes, now it's getting stupid as the copyright cartel tries to erase the concept of fair use and lock down our entire culture for their profit.

[muawiyah]

We need to keep track of what DU does in this case. Many of their "members" or "posters" ~ whatever they're called are undoubtedly psychotic ~ now, if some of them are psychopathic as well, Righthaven may have made a deadly mistake.

Be interesting to see how this plays out.