Climate sceptic blogger Anthony Watts had a YouTube video removed, claiming it infringed his copyright. The lawyers have checked it, and it’s been reposted. Here it is.
|
Climate Denial Crock of the Week Watts Up With Watts? |
| Peter Sinclair |
Let’s see if it stays up this time.
I’ll briefly go over the background again. Peter Sinclair produces a series of videos called “Climate Denial Crock of the Week”, in which he analyses popular denialist misconceptions about climate change. The Greenfyre blog [1] has put all of them together.
One of his recent videos is called “Watts Up With Watts?”. It comprehensively debunks blogger Anthony Watts’ claims that poorly sited surface weather stations in the U.S. make the U.S. temperature record unreliable. It also deals with the dual tasks of the Heartland Institute, providing denialist backup for the tobacco industry and fossil fuel industry.
The video was posted on YouTube. Anthony Watts then used a “DMCA Takedown” – a complaint of copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act – to have the video deleted from YouTube (see yesterday’s post, “Global warming, legal chill”).
As I outlined in yesterday’s post, claims of copyright infringement have become one of the most popular ways to try to silence an internet critic. It’s a favourite tactic among pseudoscience cranks. It means they don’t have to try to defend their claims. They can just use legal procedures to shut down discussion.
Where exactly is the copyright infringement? Copyright lawyers have had a look, and they don’t see a problem [2]:
The video has since been reviewed by a number of US copyright experts and (big surprise) there appears to be nothing that could be construed as anything but fair use.
Kevin Grandia,
DeSmogBlog blog, July 28, 2009 [2]
Before we even get to the question of fair use, we should take a step back. What copyright does Anthony Watts actually own in Sinclair’s “Watts Up With Watts” video? The person submitting a Copyright Infringement Notification [3] to YouTube must be the owner of the copyright, and must provide a signed statement to that effect.
What does Watts own the copyright to? Sinclair’s video begins with a few short clips from films and adverts. Watts certainly does not own the copyright to those. This is followed by a TV interview with Anthony Watts. Watts is the interviewee in this news item, but an interviewee in a news item does not own the copyright to that TV piece.
At 2:42 and 4:05 into the video, there is a shot of Watts’ surfacestations.org report published by the Heartland Institute. This is marked “© surfacestations.org”, and seems to be the only image in the video that Anthony Watts owns the copyright to. It looks like this shot of the report’s cover page is what Watts has complained about! That’s extraordinary if true. Even without going into the fair use question, it is an exceptional example of intellectual property absolutism.
Having been checked for fair use, the video has now been reposted on YouTube. Claims of copyright infringement can’t be made frivolously. The YouTube Copyright Infringement Notification [3] has the following to say about it:
Make sure you know whether the content that you have seen on YouTube infringes your copyright. If you are not sure what your rights are, or whether your copyright has been infringed, you should check with a legal adviser first. Be aware that there may be adverse legal consequences in your country if you make a false or bad faith allegation of copyright infringement by using this process. Don’t make false claims!
YouTube Copyright Infringement Notification,
YouTube, LLC [3]
Attempts at internet censorship, and attempts to use copyright law to suppress scientific debate, have a habit of backfiring spectacularly – the “Streisand effect”. Far from suppressing the information, the censorship attempt draws attention to it, and serves to discredit the person trying to do the censoring.
Peter Sinclair’s excellent videos are now far better known than they were a few days ago. Anthony Watts really does need to explain where, exactly, he thought his copyright had been infringed.
Update: Original Video Reinstated by YouTube
The video was reposted after Watts’ DMCA Takedown, but Peter Sinclair has now gone through the DMCA counter notice [4] process at YouTube, and they have reinstated the original video [5]. This is YouTube’s message to Sinclair:
“In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we’ve completed processing your counter-notification regarding your video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcxVwEfq4bM
This content has been restored and your account will not be penalized.”
Quoted by Peter Sinclair, August 19, 2009 [5]
YouTube explains the sequence of events that must follow the submission of a counter-notification [4]:
After we receive your counter notification, we will forward it to the party who submitted the original claim of copyright infringement.
[...]
After we send out the counter notification, the claimant must then notify us within 10 days that he or she has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain you from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on YouTube. If we receive such notification we will be unable to restore the material. If we do not receive such notification, we may reinstate the material.Copyright Claim Disputes: Filing a counter notice,
YouTube, LLC [4]
Since YouTube has reinstated the video, this presumably means that Anthony Watts has not notified them that he has filed an action seeking a court order. Either Watts believes he has a legitimate complaint of copyright infringement or he doesn’t. It makes his original DMCA takedown notice look even more bizarre.
Related Posts
References
- Climate Denial Crock of the Week, Greenfyre blog
- Climate Crock of the Week: What’s Up with Anthony Watts [take 2], Kevin Grandia, DeSmogBlog, July 28, 2009
- Copyright Infringement Notification, YouTube, LLC, 2009
- Copyright Claim Disputes: Filing a counter notice, YouTube, LLC, 2009
- YouTube Reinstates banned Climate video, Peter Sinclair, DeSmogBlog, August 19, 2009
1 response so far ↓
But, but (from the Watts) « Greenfyre’s // July 29, 2009 at 3:41 pm
[...] Watts update: “Watts Up With Watts?” video checked for copyright, reposted [...]