DMCA Catches McCain On YouTube

YouTube has pulled ads for John McCain that appear to violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, using copyrighted material from Fox News.

Back in 1998, Senator John McCain voted for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 10 years later he’s a victim of it.
YouTube has pulled ads for the McCain Presidential campaign after Fox News has claimed they illegally use copyrighted material. And that’s sparked a flurry of letters between the McCain campaign and YouTube.

The campaign has asked YouTube to keep the clips online while it’s determined whether the Fox clips constitute fair use – and courts have said that fair use has to be considered by copyright holders. McCain’s people have also suggested that political campaigns should have special protections. Fox has filed a DMCA claim for the clips to be removed.

YouTube has said that if it kept the ads up, it could lose its DMCA protection, which shields it from prosecution under the Act.
"The fact remains that we do not know who uploaded what content in user videos, who uploaded the videos or what authorization the uploader may or may not have to use that content," YouTube said in a letter.

"Moreover, while we agree with you that the US presidential election-related content is invaluable and worthy of the highest level of protection, there is a lot of other content on our global site that our users find to be equally important, including political campaigns from around the world at all levels of government, human rights movements, and other important voices."