NASCAR Tries To Squelch Video of Spectators Injured By Crash

An anonymous reader writes "Dozens of fans attending a NASCAR race at Daytona Speedway were injured when a crash during the last lap triggered a chain reaction, culminating in the front section of Kyle Larson's car ricocheting into the fence in front of the stands (Larson escaped injury). While the footage accompanying the article is dramatic enough, an even more riveting clip showing the chaotic scene in the stands from up close was posted on YouTube, but was taken down after NASCAR claimed it violated their copyright . YouTube has since restored the fan's video. A NASCAR spokesman has issued a clarification, saying that the takedown request was done out of respect for those injured. The race was an opening act for the main event, the Daytona 500, which officials say will proceed as scheduled. 'With the fence being prepared tonight to our safety protocols, we expect to go racing tomorrow with no changes,' Speedway President Joie Chitwood told CNN."

Comments

False Takedown Notice?

[Anonymous Coward]

So is NASCAR going to have a rash of legal suits for false takedown notices?

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[Dyinobal]

Didn't you get the memo, laws are for poor people.

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[kermidge]

Has any one, let alone some large corporate entity, every been sanctioned for false takedown?

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

A NASCAR spokesman has issued a clarification, saying that the takedown request was done out of respect for those injured.

Wow. So doing things under false pretenses is now a legitimate form of showing respect to someone. I'll try to remember that, it might come in handy!

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[Gaygirlie]

So is NASCAR going to have a rash of legal suits for false takedown notices?

No, AFAIK the DMCA laws state that you lose the right to file any more DMCA takedown requests if you fail to comply with the rules -- ie. filing takedown requests in bad faith, for example, would result in you losing the right to protect your content with any future requests. It does not make you liable for monetary compensation or place you in a position for lawsuits. In addition to that, no one seems to actually honor this side of the law -- Google certainly doesn't give a flying f*ck if someone abuses the DMCA as long as they get their pretty penny.

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[sumdumass]

I'm not sure they were false. Major League Baseball and I think most of the football chains have long considered anything that happens within their stadiums to be their copyright and trademark if documented.

NASCAR could have the same legal position except they do not normally restrict the usage of fan generated content.

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[SniffTheGlove]

I really wish that Google would do the right thing and prosecute these organisations, after all they all state "The information in all notifications submitted through the Program will be accurate, and I swear, under penalty of perjury, that with respect to those notifications, I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed." If there is a false take down then under their own words of "under penalty of perjury" they should be prosecuted. If there is never any comeback on these organisations they will keep on pumping out false takedowns. Does not matter if these are automated takedowns done by software and the sender of the takedown states "under penalty of perjury" then they are liable.

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[nametaken]

Amen. And we really do need Google to do this, if even on behalf of (and with written permission of), the actual rights holders. Every system needs checks, and just dumping countless notices on a service provider and letting them be the arbiter, with no repercussions for bogus requests, is absolutely insane. There needs to be counterweight.

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[GumphMaster]

Perjury is a felony in the US (see 18 USC 1621) so one might expect the relevant government to intervene and prosecute. One might also be disappointed.

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[jonbryce]

And if the video was from a spectator's phone, then they don't own the copyright.

Re:False Takedown Notice?

[jrumney]

When I want to respect an injured person, I've been following the 20th century tradition of sending flowers to their hospital bed. I really must catch up with the times and issue some DCMA takedown notices on false pretenses in their honour instead, least they consider me old fashioned.

Respect is an excuse?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Respect" is an excuse for perjury and a violation of a federal law? I should try that one if I ever get I trouble. I was just being respectful.

Oh, I forgot. The rules are different for large corporations. Carry on.

Yay Lawyers!

[Joe U]

What's a little perjury when you have someone's best interests in mind, right?

Why do they think they can get away with this?

[CaptainOfSpray]

So the takedown "was done out of respect for those injured."? Yeah, we lied about owning the copyright of newsfilm of a public event, in order to CMA, we didn't want to look bad or not caring about safety, we just wanted to suppress it all, so we invalidly exploited a stupid law. Who cares? We're important and those people injured are nobodies.

PR already started

[fafaforza]

I was watching their press conference (http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/feb/24/daytona-crash-fans-injured-race) and wondered why that Chit guy kept repeating how quickly and within protocol their people responded. I guess there's some question now, and they're already setting a stage for their defense.

I'll tell you what's gross.

[Seumas]

If you watch the video, everyone's practically ejaculating as the wreck begins and more cars get involved. And then, suddenly, it extends into the spectator seating and then it's the worst thing in the world. I'm sorry for those who were injured, but there's something about that which just seems really gross. "Oh, dang Jimmy Bob John Paul Ricky Dicky Junior! Look at that amazing wreck and the cars flipping around and slamming into each other! This is what we come to see! Violence and destruction and people risking their lives potentially being injured for our enjoyment!" followed by "ermagherd, a tire! who do we sue?!".

Don't misunderstand me -- the accident looked horrible, even though it wasn't clear who was injured and exactly to what extent, in the seats and I hope the spectators end up being okay and are justly compensated. It's great that the drivers were apparently okay. It's just that, as I watched the video, something about that sort of -- I don't want to call it hypocrisy, but I don't know what to call it -- which I found kind of gross.

Re:I'll tell you what's gross.

[Concerned Onlooker]

Carma, in this case.

Re:I'll tell you what's gross.

[SydShamino]

No wonder there are crashes. What are ducks doing at a turtle race?

Illegal take down request, penalty is ----

[RichMan]

As a penalty the next takedown request from NASCAR to youtube should require full documentation requiring a lawyers affidavit and full documentation of ownership of all material asserted to be owned and an full explanation of the way in which copyright is violated and a $10K deposit.
Youtube may then take up to a week to process the take down request. An improper request will not remove the penalty and the deposit will be forfit.

At least I can dream.

Perjury

[TubeSteak]

NASCAR: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."

Youtube: "Our partners and users do not have the right to take down videos from YouTube unless they contain content which is copyright infringing, which is why we have reinstated the videos."

Youtube has more or less admitted that NASCAR committed perjury by filing the DMCA claim.
Should be a slam dunk court case. Right?

Re:Nascar .. cha ching

[Seumas]

That doesn't seem fair. Everybody knows NASCAR fans can't afford a dollar.

. . . I'm a shitty person . . .

Stop Automobile Violence Act

[Anonymous Coward]

Automobile violence in the US has been rising at an alarming rate for the last 60 years.

Deaths by automobile are rising faster that the sun rise.

We need the President and Vice President and leaders of both chambers of Congress to come together and remove the violent and death dealing automobile from our local, state and national pathways.

There is no US constitutional amendment, clause or Executive Order that mandates an automobile for any US citizen.

Death from the automobile is not 'pursuit of happiness.'

The time has come to ... Kill the Car ... and let the people live.

Re:Stop Automobile Violence Act

[Seumas]

You ignorant commie. The solution isn't to take cars away from people. It's to require ALL law-abiding citizens to own and carry cars. Especially teachers. Look at cities like LA, where everyone is extremely nice to each other, because everybody knows that everybody else is carrying an automobile.

Sidenote: I love the second amendment and all, but c'mon - I got a chuckle. :P

Re:Stop Automobile Violence Act

[femtobyte]

Perhaps there's some middle-ground solution? We could require all cars to be registered (and tracked in government databases), and operators to be licensed and trained. We could mandate insurance for drivers, and require new cars to be built with reasonable safety features (while grandfathering in older collectible models). Maybe even additional taxes on car fuels, beyond the sales taxes on ordinary goods? Limitations on car operation in school zones? Fines, loss of licensing, and criminal penalties for dangerous driving (even in cases no damage is done)? This way, people who have grown up in a driving culture, passed down from parents to children, can still responsibly drive cars for recreation and utility, while keeping unlicensed fleets of murder vehicles out of the hands of criminals. But perhaps I'm the crazy dreamer to think that society could ever agree to such a solution.

Perjurious fuckers...

[tibit]

Look, you fuckers, you can't use copyright law "out of respect for the injured", mmkay? What kind of an idiot would come out with this line for an excuse? You did not send an "I wish it were so" takedown. You sent a takedown under DMCA, and you've just publicly claimed that you've perjured yourself! Just one more reason for me to otherwise ignore NASCAR.

Good rednecks in action

[kelemvor4]

Did you notice the guy shooting the video was 2 seats away from where the tire landed and he DID NOT SPILL HIS BEER. I'm not joking, check it out. That's some good redneck skills right there, man.

Gross?

[Dan East]

I'm undoing my negative moderation of your post to reply to your comment. In case you don't understand the context of this video, it is the final lap of the race. Everyone is excited because it is a close race with a number of cars vying for the win. Perhaps you don't enjoy watching sports, or rooting for a particular person or team to win, but most people tend to get rather excited when a long competition comes down to the very end.

For you to demean the spectators, and use terms like "practically ejaculating", simply shows me that you are detached emotionally from sporting events, which is a great source of entertainment and pleasure for a very significant number of people.

If you find spectators getting excited over a winner of an event "gross" then I advise you to not attend sporting events or view videos of them, so as to not offend your sensitivities.

Re:Gross?

[ColdWetDog]

NASCAR is not a goddamn sport. You have rules that you have to follow while driving? Welcome to every fucking public road in America -- we're all athletes! Mooo MOOOO MOOOO FUCKING MOOOO goddamn manatees watching dumbshits drive in circles. More beer for the narwhals while they watch their "sport" ... the word means nothing anymore.

So, for you, a 'sport' is something practiced in the nude without any implements, tools or other artifacts of modern life? So naked Christians thrown to the lions in early Rome was a 'sport'? Interesting outlook on things.

Motor sport racing, while silly on a lot of levels (NASCAR especially) requires quite a bit of athleticism from it's participants. YOU try to muscle a 5000 pound vehicle at close proximity to others going close to 200 mph for several hours. YOU probably couldn't get the thing out of the garage without having a heart attack. Ignorant Bozo.

Re:Gross?

[iCEBaLM]

Except the loudest cheers where not when the cars were in sight, but when the crash began, including a loud "Ooooh, there we go!" from someone close to the camera.

Nice try though.

Re:Gross?

[M2616]

The Autobahn isn't shit comparatively, straight line speed is easy. Like most guys I like to drive fast, we all think we can do it because we've driven down the interstate at 100-150 before. I was given a gift certificate once for Richard Petty so of course I thought it was going to be great. Not so great, the constant G's wear you down quickly. the visibility in the turns is non existent. Its very disconcerting when you have to fight to see more than 4 or 5 car lengths ahead of yourself when you are buried in the banking, there isn't any equivalent. Driving the Pikes Peak race would be less stressful. Cresting over a hill is fun, if you've done this on a motorcycle and gotten air you know what I mean negative Gs are a great sensation. Pushing inside a hill with NO visibility at that speed fighting against G's is terrifying. If anybody thinks they could compete with 42 other cars for 500 miles should first try walking into a cage with 42 hungry lions first. Point is its a deadly serious competition, everything else is just a sport as they say.

Perjury

[hduff]

"We realized we perjured ouselves in requesting a DCMA takedown of a fan video of a crash where spectators were injured. It made us look bad and made racing appear unsafe for spectators and would hurt our business. Besides, the video showed a lack of respect for the Women, Veterans and First Responders who may have been injured. We support and love these dedicated American Heroes who sacrifice everything for this Great Country and would undoubtedly support us in our loving, caring, selfless decision. Since he drinks beer, President Obama is probably a big race fan and I'm sure Obama and Jesus would support us in this no matter what the law says. I know Jesus would forgive us." Speedway President Joie Chitwood told CNN.

Re:Nascar .. cha ching

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, because nothing says "being a good guy" like trying to render first aid to someone when you're drunk and don't know the first thing about first aid.

He should've just elbowed his way through there, grabbed a pocket knife from someone, and done surgery right there in the stands.

Re: Nascar .. cha ching

[gmhowell]

while races attract all types,

Yeah, and they like both types of music at the bars near NASCAR tracks: country and western.