Slashdot Mirror
Time Denies Issuing DMCA Over Obama Joker Image
An anonymous reader writes "Last week Slashdot posted on the Flickr censorship case where Flickr removed the controversial Obama/Joker image from their site. A representative from Flickr claimed that they only removed the image because they received a DMCA takedown notice over the image and then accused the press and blogosphere of being 'makey uppey,' subsequently locking the thread where Flickr users were complaining about the takedown. But now it appears that Time, DC Comics, and the photographer of the original photograph used to make the parody image are all denying having issued Flickr a takedown notice. Flickr was asked who issued the notice by the Los Angeles Times and told the Times that they were not able to provide that information. The original artist says Flickr has not told him who filed it either, despite the fact that Yahoo has in the past provided the information to people when DMCA takedown requests are issued. So if Time didn't file the DMCA notice, and DC Comics didn't file the DMCA notice, and the original photographer did not file the DMCA notice, then who exactly did?"
Er.. Technically it doesn't "encourage" hosts to assume infringement so much as it -requires- hosts to assume the legitimacy of the takedown notice. If they fail to, they lose immunity. That's why the notice gets promptly forwarded to the user against whom the takedown is perform and its also why the user gets to send a "put back" notice which -requires- the host to restore the removed material until such a time as ordered to remove it by a court.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Uhm, you do realise that most of the mainstream media in the US is own by Rupert Murdoch, and other wealthy Republicans?
Not even close to true. He doesn't own ABC, CBS, or NBC. He does own Fox, one of four major networks. On cable, you have Fox News owned by Murdoch (very Republican-oriented, granted), CNN owned by Ted Turner (debatable), but the rest of the news channels aren't close to right-leaning in general. For newspapers, he owns the WSJ, which is the only prominent right-leaning paper, with the Washington Post and New York Times being the two most prominent newspapers in the country. They also happen to be *extremely* left.
So your big Republican conspiracy is 1 out of 4 major networks, one or two major cable news channels, and one major newspaper. That's a lot more than those that are clearly left-leaning. The network news tends to skew left, as do newspapers in major cities.
Yes, I'm sure Flickr has a full-time staff of people whose job it is to sift through random photos all day long, looking for ones that fall under several categories of things to get politically upset about
Of course your statement is absurd. Plenty such images are on Flickr.
But the image taken down was very well known at the time, having got a ton of press and being bandied as proof of some kind of racism.
It doesn't take a "staff of people" in that case, it takes one vigilante at Flickr deciding to take matters into his (or her) own hands and hide behind the shield of the near-unversally reviled DMCA, figuring the real rights holders would want it that way... only they didn't. Oops.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You are correct it is not left leaning, it leans in favor of Democrat politicians, in particular those that favor greater government control over the economy. Polls have repeatedly shown that those who work in the news media overwhelming self-identify as Democrats and as liberals.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison