YouTube Pulls Anti-Gore Ad For Supposed Copyright Infringement

YouTube watchers have often marvelled at the video website's floating enforcement of copyright laws.

Another such incident guaranteed to cause a lot of conservative heads to be scratched is this weekend's decision by YouTube to yank an advertisement created by the Competitive Enterprise Institute -- as reported by NewsBusters March 12 -- harshly critical of Nobel Laureate Al Gore's hypocritical views on global warming.

As reported by the conservative CEI moments ago:

A new anti-Gore ad produced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute has been censored by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The association claims copyright infringement over seven seconds of footage in the ad—footage which was taken from a documentary that the Association itself posted on YouTube. A “takedown” notice by the association led to the ad being yanked off YouTube over the weekend. CEI has since put the ad on its own website. [...]

“NRECA’s claim of copyright infringement is without merit,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute General Counsel Sam Kazman. “Our use of this miniscule amount of material – from a film which NRECA itself posted on YouTube and distributes freely –meets every criterion of Fair Use. It seems the association’s real goal is not to protect its copyright, but to protect its politically correct image on global warming.”

James V. DeLong, noted intellectual property scholar and Vice President of the Convergence Law Institute, stated of NRECA: “They’re trying to suppress important political speech, which lies at the core of Fair Use.”

Wouldn't you love to know how YouTube decides when to honor copyright infringement claims and when to ignore them?