DISQUS

Don Marti · 2 years ago

It's hard to imagine a use of debate footage that wouldn't qualify as fair use. Why throw away the opportunity to get a slam-dunk fair-use-affirming precedent into the law books?
Luis Villa · 2 years ago

There are a fairly large number of those, Don; this is instead a massively high profile way to get CC licenses (presumably) slapped on something.

As a bonus, it is guaranteed that the content would get remixed and reused, not just copied and distributed. Really smart move by Lessig.
Doug Lay · 2 years ago

Jeff Jarvis is on a tear with this issue over at buzzmachine.com. Unfortunately, it seems that NBC hasn't bought into the idea that the debate footage should be open to all. However, in typical Internet fashion, NBC's copyright terms are simply being ignored by everyone from Jarvis himself to Presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Luis Villa · 2 years ago

And I forgot to mention that you'll never get actual precedent out of a fair use violation like this one; it'll never get to court because the case will settle or be dropped. So, again, what Lessig is doing is very smart (even if it doesn't work in this cycle.)