Via the Electronic Frontier Foundation, we learn that the National Organization for Marriage’s No Offense ad featuring Carrie Prejean and her now-tarnished tiara is once again available for public scorn at YouTube:
YouTube Restores A Fair Use
About a week ago, blogger Perez Hilton issued a DMCA takedown notice, asking YouTube to remove a video created by the National Organization of Marriage (NOM). The video used a clip from Hilton’s blog in which he strongly criticized Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, in response to comments she made criticizing gay marriage.
NOM’s use of Hilton’s video clip was clearly fair and non-infringing — it is brief, transformative, critical, and does not pose a competitive threat to Hilton’s market. As such, Hilton’s takedown notice was, like takedown notices from Universal Music, Warner Music, Uri Geller and Michael Savage before him, a baseless attack on free speech.
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That said, NOM’s sudden championship of fair use rights is striking, considering that NOM appears to have sent a slew of improper takedown notices of its own recently. The irony is palpable, especially for critics of NOM who’ve been denied the same free speech rights that NOM is now enjoying.
The National Orgasm for Opposite Marriage went on a censorious rampage following the release of its much-maligned Gathering Storm of Hypocrisy ad. NOM ordered YouTube to take down both parody videos and legitimate news footage from The Rachel Maddow Show. Despite this revelation of fair use abuse, NOM exec Brian Brown is undoubtedly as happy as a little girl that his ad is back online — despite its one-star rating.
I’m willing to bet that Perez Hilton knew he didn’t have a legal leg to stand on when he launched his crafty copyright caper. He almost certainly knew it was only a matter of time before NOM’s ad would be back online. However, since then, …
… thanks to Perez Hilton, we’ve had time to learn that:
- Carrie Prejean is dumber than a box of rocks
- Carrie Prejean had performance-enhancing breasts installed
- Carrie Prejean ain’t all that with all conservative Christians
- Carrie Prejean makes a lousy spokesmodel for homophobia
- Carrie Prejean lacks certain of Anita Bryant’s gifts
- Carrie Prejean has issues with telling the truth
- Carrie Prejean has flagrantly violated her contact with the Miss California USA Pageant
- Carrie Prejean has done soft-core porn photo shoots
- Carrie Prejean has daddy issues and might believe all men with mustaches are gay
- Maggie Gallagher is not interested in debating the issues as much as she is interested in bullying and shutting down discussion
- Brian Brown pings a lot of folk’s gaydar and can’t hold his own in a debate
All in all, NOM’s No Offense ad warrants a great big FAIL. After this foolishness, who in their right mind is going to take NOM or its anti-GLBT propaganda seriously?
Comments
2 Comments so far. Comments are closed.YouTube’s decision to restore the video should also mean that everyone who has had their submissions pulled for the same reason should have their videos restored as well.
Nelson, you can’t possibly believe that Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown think little things like the law apply to them.