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EFF Launches "Takedown Hall of Shame"

netbuzz writes "Recognizing that public shame is a potent weapon, the Electronic Frontier Foundation today launched a new Web site — its Takedown Hall of Shame — that will shine an unflattering spotlight on those corporations and individuals who abuse copyright claims to stifle free speech. Among the early inductees are NPR, NBC, CBS, and Diebold."

34 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. They forgot one by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about the Church of Scientology?
    Their censorship is the entire reason the /b/tards started harassing them.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:They forgot one by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...what, and get sued?

      (sadly, while originally typed that in a half-assed attempt to be funny, I can almost seeing the Xenuphiles doing exactly that...)

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    2. Re:They forgot one by bfmorgan · · Score: 5, Funny

      EFF might not have enough lawyers to fight the take down notices from the Church of Scientology... Whoops, I just got one.

      --
      I hope this caused some synapses to fire.
    3. Re:They forgot one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The EFF even covered scientology takedowns!

      Also, project chanology is a steaming mess of faggotry. The EFG masks and microsoft voice synthesized youtube videos reek of internet tuff guy.

    4. Re:They forgot one by geekmux · · Score: 3, Funny

      EFF might not have enough lawyers to fight the take down notices from the Church of Scientology... Whoops, I just got one.

      Since we're on the topic of getting sued by an organization that managed to shit an entire religion out of a tinfoil hat within the last decade or three, who's up for a Church of Common Sense? Anyone? Can I get a Hell Yeah!?!

      Damn Tom, I was just kidding man, chill...John, c'mon man I need my Interne...

    5. Re:They forgot one by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2, Informative
      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    6. Re:They forgot one by LandDolphin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Church of Common Sense

      To few members to start a church. At these small numbers, it would just be a cult.

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      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    7. Re:They forgot one by bertoelcon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I would much rather just consider Common Sense a superpower now.

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      Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
  2. Video professor by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 5, Informative

    What happened to Video Professor? Should have made the list IMO:

    In mid-August, in federal court in Denver, the Video Professor, a self-proclaimed consumer advocate, sued his own customers for posting comments on two consumer comment Web sites. The sites, infomercialratings.com and infomercialscams.com, are run by a Nevada company, Leonard Fitness, Inc.

    The Professor alleged that his detractors had violated federal trademark laws by saying negative things about the name of his product, as well as committing defamation and several violations of state law

    1. Re:Video professor by ubercam · · Score: 3, Informative

      The EFF has an email address for just such a purpose. You can find the link at the bottom of TFA. Perhaps you should let them know about it.

    2. Re:Video professor by commodore64_love · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or FOX News? I see NBC/MSNBC listed. What about fox? With all the hate I see directed at them from Usenet posters and even our own White House, surely they must be enemy #1 when it comes to censorship.

      What?

      They don't censor free speech? Hmmm; guess the anti-fox bias has no basis.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  3. Re:NBC - MSNBC ? by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Funny

    The problem is that nobody uses their material except for parody, so they don't have anyone to sue.

  4. Re:NBC - MSNBC ? by fatmonkeyboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    How about this?

  5. NPR is on here? by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since we the taxpayers are paying for National Public Radio, shouldn't all their productions be considered public domain, or at least open-licensed, under U.S. Congressional law?

    Stand for Marriage Maine (SMM) created an ad criticizing same-sex marriage that excerpted a brief portion of an All Things Considered interview. Although the ad's use of the content was clearly necessary to its critical political message, NPR sent a takedown demand to YouTube resulting in the removal of the video. NPR failed to recognize that SMM's excerpting is simply another clear-cut example of a fair use in political speech -- the 21st century equivalent of an issue pamphlet.

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    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    1. Re:NPR is on here? by ral · · Score: 4, Informative

      About 2% of NPR's funding comes from the government

    2. Re:NPR is on here? by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Your assumptions are incorrect. The CPB might get federal funding, but only about 17% of its budget comes from the federal government. 23% of it comes from state and local tax revenues, and 60% of the rest comes from private contributions. That makes about 2% of the NPR budget coming out of federal sources.

      I also don't understand why you equate licensee support with NSF and endowment for the arts. NPR material is licensed to local radio stations for use - there actually is no NPR station. Only stations that carry NPR material.

      So taxpayers across the nation own about 2% of the products produced. And if you want access to their material, I can pretty much download anything I want from the sites of the various local stations.

      So what's your point exactly? That they ought to be smacked down for abusing copyright in the case listed? Sure. That they somehow are owned by all Americans? Hardly. If anything, they are owned by those who contribute directly.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    3. Re:NPR is on here? by mrmeval · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They get for free multi-billion dollar valued airwaves all over the country. That '2%' you cite is more if you consider the taxes not collected from the 98 percent donated. So I own their output until I'm paid back my share of that plus interest plus whatever fees they do not pay on the FCC license going back when they got their bucket of largess.

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      I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
    4. Re:NPR is on here? by znerk · · Score: 2

      By that logic, all government funded research and drug discovery should be considered public domain as well...

      ... and the issue here would be...?

      As another poster stated (emphasis mine):

      It seems reasonable to suggest that information produced with any level of public funding should belong to the public. Don't like the terms? Don't take public funding.

      I don't see any problems, here.

      --
      This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
    5. Re:NPR is on here? by mrmeval · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The law gags the churches and ham radio operators which I will accept if it's applied to NPR.

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      I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
    6. Re:NPR is on here? by commodore64_love · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Okay thanks for the corrections but you still said, "About 2% of NPR's funding comes from the government," and by your own numbers that's not true. CPB donation == (17% from U.S. + 23% state/local government)* 11% == 4.4% given to NOR. And the article says an additional 5% is donated directly to NP$ by state/local government.

      That's still almost 10% coming from the government (our pockets). If Obama can order around Bank of America and demand that the top 100 managers get 50% paycuts, just because they received a few billon taxpayer dollars, then surely he can do the same with NPR and demand that their creations be available under an ope license.

      Of course I also think it's ridiculous that Oregon copyrights its legal pamphets, and issues takedown notices against website owners if they dare publish them. Government "of, by, and for the people" is rapidly becoming "of, by, and for politicians and copyright-holders".

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      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  6. Re:NPR? by schnikies79 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Free speech is free speech. Picking and choosing your examples is just as bad as censorship.

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    Gone!
  7. Clear number 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Shouldn't the number one "shame" spot go to the congress that passed the DMCA?

    1. Re:Clear number 1 by RIAAShill · · Score: 5, Informative

      Shouldn't the number one "shame" spot go to the congress that passed the DMCA?

      No. The DMCA does not mandate removal of allegedly infringing materials. Without the DMCA, copyright holders could still send "cease and desist" letters to service providers, or otherwise request that allegedly infringing materials be removed. Service providers would then have to decide whether to comply with the demand/request or risk being held liability for monetary damages, perhaps under a theory of secondary liability. Even worse, service providers might have faced monetary damages even if they were unaware of specific acts of copyright infringement.

      The DMCA "notice and takedown" safe harbor provides a voluntary way for service providers to avoid monetary liability based on the potentially infringing activities of their users. Even better, if users issue a counter notice, then the service provider can replace the allegedly infringing materials without incurring monetary liability.

      Service providers that use the DMCA notice and takedown safe harbor are thus able to provide public fora without being having an incentive to police user activity to minimize the risk of owing damages in their users engage in copyright infringement. This is good from a free speech perspective.

      If a takedown notice is sent, service providers do not have to comply . They can keep the materials online, provided they are willing to risk being found liable. Thus, service providers who choose to use the DMCA to protect themselves from obvious instances of infringement can still choose to protect the availability of their users' submissions.

      This is good for service providers and good for users. Why do you think Slashdot has designated an agent under the DMCA?

      Given the benefits of this provision, Congress should not be ashamed. Only those copyright holders who send out abusive takedown notices and the like, and those service providers who indiscriminatly hang their users out to dry, should be ashamed.

  8. Chilling Effects? by Misch · · Score: 3, Informative

    I thought this is what Chilling Effects was for?

    Or was the EFF unable to push the spotlight idea through the other partners they have for Chilling Effects (Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics.)

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    --You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
  9. Mod Parent troll by virtualXTC · · Score: 4, Informative

    Parent is trolling; Fox has an extensive history of censorship.

  10. Re:NPR? by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The one thing I hate the most is hypocrites. I'm a staunch advocate of same-sex couples having the same legal rights as mixed-sex couples, but fair use is fair use. Your principles should apply equally to those whom you esteem and those whose viewpoints you find repugnant. Opponents of same sex marriage have a first amendment right to use any legal, non-threatening method to communicate their viewpoint to others. I'd prefer they stick to facts, but apparently they have no legal obligation to do so, and except for being taken out of context, use of this clip was entirely factual. As Voltaire is credited with saying, "I may not agree with what you are saying, but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it."

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    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  11. Re:NBC - MSNBC ? by bennomatic · · Score: 5, Insightful
    That's one of the sillier posts I've ever seen. There are lots of things that a media outlet can do that are worthy of complaints even if they are not under the umbrella of censorship.

    Examples:
    • Promoting lies and misrepresentations as if they were facts.
    • Creating a fake "grassroots" movement and promoting it as if it were real.
    • Publishing verbatim talking points from one political party as if they were objective news.
    • Claiming to be a news agency while dropping any hints of objective reporting.

    Now, it's normal for a media outlet to have its own slant or bias; even a corporation evolves a "culture" which colors what is reported. However, Fox is not even rationally consistent with its judgements; take, for example, back to back reports on Britney Spears' younger sister being pregnant vs. Sarah Palin's daughter being pregnant. Bill O'Reilly went from calling Spears' parents "pinheads" to saying that "the liberal media's judgement of Palin is outrageous" without taking a breath. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

    Local Fox affiliates have normal news. The parent news agency, with their "Fox and Friends", Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly and more, are entertainment at best, a propaganda agency at worst, even in those segments where they claim to be news.

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    The CB App. What's your 20?
  12. shocking! by Trepidity · · Score: 2, Funny

    A list of abusive, lying corporations that includes De Beers on it!

  13. Re:Youtube and Warner by roguetrick · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If I produced a Slipknot video, I'd DMCA myself too.

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    -The world would be a better place if everyone had a hoverboard
  14. Inifinite Loops by blyloveranger · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anyone else worried about this turning into an infinite takedown notice loop the brings the whole internet to it's knees, as the corporations send takedown notices to take down the takedown notices which are then put up only to be followed up by more takedown notices for the takedown notices of the takedown notices, which of course will then have to be put... Can anyone stop this madness?

  15. Re:NBC - MSNBC ? by Dhalka226 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's like whining that Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert have a liberal bias. Hannity and Beck are entertainers.

    Of course you know that, but it's just not a good troll if you admit it, right?

    Hmm, let's see. Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert -- Comedy Central.

    Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity -- Fox News Channel.

    You're right; absolute equivalence. I can't believe those damn liberal hypocrites!

    Look, nobody's bitching that Rush Limbaugh isn't balanced. Not only does he not claim to be, nobody claims he's anything but a man paid to stir up conservatives. But when your show airs on a news network above the banner "Fair and Balanced," yes, you're doing everything you can to pretend toward an air of impartiality that you not only don't have, but have absolutely no intention of trying for. It is exactly what the OP suggested: Opinion masquerading as if it is impartial news.

    If they want to get their own TV shows on Comedy Central, they're more than welcome to them and you will hear nary another word about their lack of impartiality. So long as they're airing on the biggest network news channel in the nation, above a claim of balance, they deserve to be held to a higher standard. We'll start with the standard their own damn network branding claims to set and go from there.

  16. WTF? by namespan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They get for free multi-billion dollar valued airwaves all over the country.

    Neither NPR nor CPB actually have any spectrum, let alone get it for free. They produce programming which is licensed by other broadcasters. The radio stations themselves are generally operated by public education institutions (with the occasional private university or ad hoc community organization thrown in).

    That '2%' you cite is more if you consider the taxes not collected from the 98 percent donated.

    Are we going to claim ownership of anything produced by any 501c3 or any other tax exempt organization, too?

    --
    Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
  17. Re:NBC - MSNBC ? by commodore64_love · · Score: 2, Informative

    >>>an "arm of the Democratic Party" that devotes three hours a day to a conservative host who used to be a Republican Congressman

    At first I didn't know who you meant, and then I saw the name Joe Scarborough. He was a Republican, but he's no conservative. Just as Republican Arlen Specter jumped ship to the Democrats, so too should Joe.

    Besides ONE (R) on the staff doesn't erase the fact the MSNBC still leans way left. Or have you forgotten the whole debacle where they voiced-over a video with "gun-toting white racists" but the guy holding the rifle was actually a black man? That kind of bias runs rampant throughout MSNBC reporting - it's just that this time they got caught.

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    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  18. Judge by actions by Nerdposeur · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The test of whether someone is fit for the list should really be "Would this company support the creation of such takedown laws factoring in the damage they can have on fair use if they did not exist".

    Which is impossible to answer. You're giving NPR the benefit of the doubt, but not others. Why? All these organizations might say, via their PR people, "we don't like this tactic, but we have to do it." How would you decide who is lying?

    It may well be that NPR agrees with you entirely, but if they don't use it it wont just go away, so they might as well use it, just as their opponents would.

    And it may well be that NPR would send goons to beat up their enemies if they thought they could get away with it. I doubt it. But how can we tell?

    You cannot judge people by the intentions you think they may have. You must judge by actions.