ABC / Disney Shuts Down Blog Exercising Fair Use

" An anonymous reader writes:

"A blogger named Spocko had his blog shut down by ABC/Disney lawyers because he had posted clips from an ABC Radio-affiliated program and commented on their content, as well as informed show advertisers of what exactly they were paying for. Spocko merely pointed out the content that station KSFO was broadcasting, and as a result Visa pulled their advertising from the station. More companies were reportedly considering pulling their ads. A YouTube video summary is available. From the Daily Kos article: 'How'd he do it? He did it the way it's always done - by working within the law, identifying points of weakness, exploiting them and being absolutely tenacious ... It appears to me as if Disney is attempting to bully a little guy in an unethical manner. Any media lawyer worth the air she breathes knows that Spocko's use was well protected.'" "

- http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/07/1750216&from=rss
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"THE MOUSE IS ROARING AGAINST a blogger named "Spocko" who has been waging a one-man campaign against ABC Radio. So far, Disney has managed to get Spocko's Internet service provider to take down his blog--but Spocko isn't giving up the fight just yet.

The conflict stems from Spocko's criticism of a right-wing talk show airing on KSFO-AM in San Francisco. Even by notorious talk-show-standards, the comments on KSFO stand out as particularly venomous. Consider, this summer, host Melanie Morgan called for New York Times editor Bill Keller to be executed for having okayed the paper's expose on governments' attempt to suss out financial records of suspected terrorists. "I really do believe that anybody who publishes classified information that results in a charge of treason should be fried! Fry 'em! Trial, conviction, death penalty!" she said this summer, according to Salon.

Spocko posted several audio files on his site, so visitors could hear the hosts for themselves. He also began writing letters to the station's advertisers, condemning their support of KSFO; he says that some of the advertisers have stopped promoting on the station.

ABC responded with a cease-and-desist letter, sent to Spocko and his ISP. In the letter, the network claimed that Spocko's embedding of audio clips violated the KSFO copyright.

Spocko argues that his posting of the audio files--which mainly range in length from several seconds to almost five minutes--constitutes a fair use of the material.

But his ISP apparently didn't want to risk a trial on the issue and gave him one week to remove the material. When he declined, the ISP took down his blog.

For Spocko, however, the fight's not over. He has been in contact with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and apparently intends to do whatever he can on the legal front.

Meantime, Disney's heavy-handed attempt to silence its critics is already backfiring, as Spocko takes his fight public. "

- http://www.mickeynews.com/News/DisplayPressRelease.asp_Q_id_E_167Blog
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Additional details and correspondence:
- http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/3/202110/2838

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