NFL selectively obeys DMCA in copyright dispute

In yet another example of pushing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the limits and then pushing it just a little bit more, the NFL has chosen to selectively obey some DMCA clauses while disobeying others. No bonus points for guessing that this saga involves YouTube, which has recently become the expanding mass at center of the DMCA dispute universe.

Wendy Seltzer, a former EFF lawyer who founded the Chilling Effects project, posted a clip of the NFL's over-zealous copyright warning from the Super Bowl (an educational use of material that is clearly covered under existing Fair Use statues) upon which the NFL brought down the wrath of Zeus issued a DMCA takedown notice. Seltzer, knowing her rights, replied to YouTube with her fair use claims, and YouTube responded by allowing the video to return. The DMCA prohibits the NFL from filing another notice in that case, but that's exactly what they did. YouTube, possibly not knowing what they'd done given the volume of DMCA issues they're processing, obeyed the now fraudulent takedown notice and Seltzer's video is once again off-line.

Remember what we said the other day about how the copyright claims of individuals were just as important as those of the big corporations? This is a perfect example of the disparity that exists under current law. Just because the NFL would rather not have a former EFF lawyer using them as an example of copyright lunacy gone berzerk, doesn't give them the rights to not play by the rules.

[via Boing Boing]

Tags: Digital Millennium Copyright Act, DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct, DMCA, news, NFL, Wendy Seltzer, WendySeltzer