Don't Mess With the Lessig

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Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School Professor and champion of a less copyright-restricted Internet, last month joined forces with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to file suit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts against a Melbourne, Australia-based record company that accused the professor of infringing on a copyrighted song by using it in a lecture presented on YouTube.

In his 11-page complaint, Lessig v. Liberation Music Party Ltd. (Case No. 1:13-cv-12028), the professor is seeking injunctive relief, damages and declaratory judgment from the Court under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act [17 U.S.C. sec. 512] that his use of a 2009 tune, Lisztomania, by French songsters Phoenix in the YouTube lecture was protected by the Copyright Act's Fair Use provision [17 U.S.C. sec. 107].

Under the Fair Use defense against infringement claims, the Court weighs factors, including the purpose and character of the use of the copyrighted material, whether the use was for commercial or nonprofit educational purposes, the nature of the copyrighted work, and the amount and substanitality of the portion used.

According to an account of the case in The Boston Globe, Liberation Music claims to hold the copyright on Lisztomania and sent correspondence to Lessig accusing him of violating its license. In turn, Lessig claims in his complaint that the Down Under record company is abusing the Copyright Act and abridging his First Amendment rights.

6th Circ.: Ok YouTube Death Threat Song Lands Singer in 'Sing-Sing'

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In U.S. v. Franklin D. Jeffries II (Case No. 11-5722), the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has upheld the criminal conviction of an Iraq/Afghanistan war veteran whose YouTube music video threatened the life of an unidentified judge set to hear a child custody visitation dispute in which Jeffries was embroiled were the unnamed judge to issue an adverse ruling.

In a 20-page decision written by Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, the appellate court said the vehicle for delivering a death threat was unimportant if a reasonable person perceived the threat as genuine. According to accounts in the Knoxville News Sentinel and the ABA Journal Law News Now blog, Franklin Delano "Dale" Jeffries, a former Army sergeant, sang and rapped a warning that his next court date in a visitation battle with his daughter's mother had better be his last.

"If I have to kill a judge or a lawyer, or a woman, I don't care, cause this is my daughter we're talking about," Jeffries sang. His lyrics also included the phrase: "You don't deserve to be a judge and you don't deserve to live." As a songwriter, the defendant was less Cole Porter than Cole Younger, or more Frankenstein than Jule Styne.

Knox County Chancellor Mike Moyers was slated to hear the custody case in July 2010, the News Sentinel reported, but federal authorities intervened after Jeffries posted his ditty on YouTube and Facebook, and also forwarded it to a state senator and a local television station.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Jeffries was released earlier this year, but has since been sentenced to a year in prison by United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee Judge Thomas W. Phillips for cocaine use and issuing threats of suicide and murder on Twitter, so he's apparently turned his creative juices toward a new medium, at least.

Jeffries' attorneys claimed their client's song was a failed attempt at humor, and in any case, constituted a means of releasing stress that was protected by the First Amendment. No dice, said the Sixth Circuit. "[O]ne cannot duck (the law)," Judge Sutton wrote, "merely by delivering the threat in verse or by dressing it up with political and protected attacks on the legal system."

For the immediate future, it looks as if Jeffries' repertoire of songs may be confined to Prisoner of Love, Jailhouse Rock and the country & western classic: They May Put Me in Prison, but They Can't Stop My Face from Breakin' Out.

YouTube With a Dash of 'Woodstein'?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Google-owned YouTube will collaborate with the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) to launch the I Files channel that will air investigative news videos, Ndtv.com reports.

CIR will edit the videos that will be produced by worldwide contributors ranging from the New York Times and the BBC to Al Jazeera. The channel also will be an outlet for independent reporters and producers.

 YouTube is the platform for the I Files channel that is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. According to the Ndtv.com article, the channel already has 10 videos in the pipeline.

Media Pros: YouTube Can Be a Journalist

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News Media heavyweights Katie Couric, Bob Woodward, and Nicholas Kristof are among the journalists who have lent their talents to a new YouTube venture designed to teach citizen journalists how to report the news.

YouTube, the Google-owned site on which subscribers share videos (often with disregard for copyright laws and good taste), launched youtube.com/reporterscenter this week that features online journalism training in a variety of subjects. Woodward, who combined with Washington Post cohort Carl Bernstein to become the "Woodstein" that brought down the Nixon Administration with their coverage of the Watergate scandal, presents a five-minute tutorial on investigative journalism. CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric's contribution to YouTube are pointers on conducting a good interview. Kristof, the New York Times columnist, weighs in on being a foreign correspondent.
Other participants include Ariana Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Website, who addresses citizen journalism (because talking about how to get professional journalists to write for you for no money seems tacky).

YouTube is looking for experienced journalists to upload instructional videos. With the public increasingly looking to social media and other nontraditional sources for their news, it may be a case for these celebrity journalists of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."