Fox News has apparently sent Sen. John McCain a cease and desist letter for his campaign’s use of 19 seconds of video of the Senator taken from a debate hosted by Fox News in a campaign ad (available here). Fox’s claim that the political ad violates its copyright strains credulity. If the use of a 19 second clip from a 90 minute televised debate incorporated into a political ad is not fair use, then what is?

The question to Fox News is, are there any circumstances where the network would acknowledge fair use of debate footage? Is there something about this particular advertisement that they contend is distinguishable from other uses of short clips for political debate and commentary? Or are they making an argument that candidates who participated in televised political debate (as compared to ordinary citizens) are not entitled to claim fair use of short clips for political purposes? If so, why?

Because frankly we can’t see it. Yes, the clip did make its way into a political ad. And yes, he did cherry pick one of the few “newsworthy” (or at least entertaining) moments in the debate. But if Senator McCain can’t use 19 seconds from that debate in a political ad, it’s difficult to imagine that anyone can claim fair use of any one of the 5400 seconds from that debate.

The only good thing that may come from this incident is that members of Congress may finally begin to grasp the importance of fair use to a democratic society. Nothing focuses the mind of a politician like a cease and desist letter aimed at a political advertisement.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Digital Copyright. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.