McCain to YouTube: Don't Tread On Me

Andrea Chalupa writes: From CNN's YouTube debates to the insta-fame of Obama Girl, YouTube has played a major role in this election. In fact the video hub is so critical that the McCain campaign took the time to send a letter of complaint to top YouTube execs, including C.E.O. Chad Hurley and parent company Google, after the website removed McCain campaign ads because of copyright infringement. The letter implied their campaign was being unfairly targeted by YouTube and its ilk.

"Numerous times during the course of the campaign, our advertisements or Web videos have been the subject of DMCA takedown notices regarding uses that are clearly privileged under the fair use doctrine," wrote Trevor Potter, general counsel for the McCain campaign.

He's referring to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act that penalizes copyright infringements on the Web and prohibits the production and proliferation of content that breaches Digital Rights Management (DRM).

YouTube claims the campaign violated this act by using footage of actual news broadcasts, which are, of course, protected.  

And it's hardly the first time McCain has been called out for breaking copyright law. Last fall, Fox News, which prohibits candidates from using their footage in endorsements, made YouTube take down McCain's "Tied Up" video. The political clip included footage from a Fox-sponsored debate of McCain criticizing Hillary Clinton for an earmark.

Last month CBS News made YouTube take down McCain's infamous "Lipstick" video that insinuated Barack Obama called Sarah Palin a lipstick-wearing pig. The video ends with footage of Katie Couric discussing the "continued and accepted role of sexism in American life." Couric was referring to the media's coverage of Hillary Clinton in the Primary. CBS called the ad misleading and a violation of copyright.

Warner Music also demanded in July that YouTube remove a video by McCain called "Obama Love," edited to show news media fawning over the Illinois senator and played to Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You." YouTube removed the video, and McCain's campaign later posted it on their site after changing the music to something more generic.
 
"YouTube was abiding by the rules that Congress set up when it took down the videos about which the McCain/Palin campaign complained. Perhaps next year, Congress will consider taking a look at the beneficial effects fair use has on society, including on political speech," said Gigi Sohn, the president of Public Knowledge, a digital culture public interest group in Washington, DC.

But the McCain campaign has a better idea. They think that YouTube should allow the accounts of candidates and political campaigns to have a grace period before their videos are removed. That's to give YouTube time to run a full legal review first.

"Surely the protection of core political speech, and the protection of the central role YouTube has come to play in the country's political discourse, is worth the small amount of additional legal work our proposal would require," wrote Potter.  

Right now, according to YouTube policy, there's a 10 to 14 day re-instatement process after a video gets pulled. As Potter points out, "10 days can be a "lifetime in a political campaign."

Being at odds with YouTube is telling of the self-proclaimed untech-savvy Senator's overall Web strategy and presence. In fact, his campaign launched a YouTube channel six months after the Obama campaign did, which has 1,784,859 views compared to Obama's 17,166,074.