Section 107 of the Copyright Act permits “fair use” of copyrighted materials “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching…, scholarship, or research.” But the leaders of one California city don’t think this applies to critical videos made using footage from its city council meetings.
Earlier this year, the City of Inglewood in Los Angeles County sued a YouTube user after he uploadedvideos that criticize Mayor James Butts and others.
The clips utilize video from Inglewood city council meetings to illustrate his issues, but the lawsuit [PDF] alleges that the YouTuber violated Inglewood’s copyright and that the city “has suffered, and will continue to suffer, irreparable harm and damages” as a a result.
The city claims that the YouTube videos made from the copyrighted council footage do not fall under the fair use exception because they “have no critical bearing on the substance or style of the original composition.”
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2 comments:
well they are open forums to the public for the public so he is the public and can use public footage... Nice try though... I am sure since everything is corrupt the city will win the suit...
A PUBLIC OFFICIAL, (used to call 'em "public servants", but they have risen above that lowly endeavor) in a public meeting, doing public business, has NO "copyright" privileges. What a bunch of power-tripping wanna-be Nazi's. They have forgotten their place, too.
His actions and words, and what "we the people" can do with and about them, are governed by another document he may have never heard of -- the Constitution.
Stifling free speech and criticism. Jailing reporters. Disregarding FOI Act requests. Lying about official actions. THIS is "transparency"???
Keep cheering.
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