CNN and Fair Useage

Copyright used to seem pretty straight forward and limited.  Now it seems to run to the horizon and as I pay more attention it becomes more confusing, but then I am not a lawyer.

I was surprised that CNN has apparently stepped in to have a clip pulled from YouTube.  They are claiming Copyright infringement.  However, it has the smell of embarrassment.

One take on this can be found at a post (hat tip to Instapundit by Ron Coleman, a litigator and trademark lawyer at Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP.

The source of this imbroglio was CNN reporter Susan Roesgen, at a tea party in Chicago, Wednesday last.  (If you read The Boston Globe for your news, there were three of these "tea parties" in Eastern Massachusetts on Wednesday:  Lowell, Worcester and Boston.)  The reporter got a little confrontational with a couple of the protesters.  Nothing serious, but she is apparently now enjoying a well deserved vacation.  For additional discussion, you can go here.  At the time of this blog posting that website did have a link to the "offending" video.

My point in commenting on this imbroglio is that CNN has come a long ways since the 1980s, when it was a great news source.  Either it changed or I did.  Now I no longer find it that scrappy and friendly alternative to the three major networks. And this episode with trying to use copyright laws to suppressed debate strikes me as another example their slide toward the bottom.

While I may not particularly like some of the politics of Mr Ted Turner, I do think that his was a great news organization, once upon a time.

Regards  —  Cliff