Yesterday, we officially filed our DMCA counter-notice in the matter of CNN’s censorship of Founding Bloggers’ [2] coverage of the Chicago Tax Day Tea Party. A copy of the counter-notice [3] 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 [3], Ben makes the following interesting point:
Founding Bloggers could also sue CNN. Section 512(f) [4] 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 [5], one court has held [6] 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.