Yesterday, we officially filed our DMCA counter-notice in the matter of CNN’s censorship of Founding Bloggers’ coverage of the Chicago Tax Day Tea Party. A copy of the counter-notice is available at Ben Sheffner’s blog Copyrights & Campaigns, where he’s been devoting much of his valuable energy toward documenting and publicizing what CNN has tried to do in this case.
In his current post on the story, Ben makes the following interesting point:
Founding Bloggers could also sue CNN. Section 512(f) of the DMCA allows the target of a takedown notice to seek damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, against the sender for “knowingly materially misrepresent[ing] … that material or activity is infringing.” While such cases are difficult to win, one court has held that the sender must take into account fair use when deciding whether to issue a takedown notice. Founding Bloggers can also sue for a declaratory judgment, asking a court to issue an order stating that its video is a non-infringing fair use.
MUCH more to come.
I must say, these guys don’t lack for stones.
Tags: attorneys, blog, censorship, CNN, declaratory judgment, dmca, takedown notice, tea party
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