A call on the RNC & DNC to eliminate unnecessary regulation of political speech
(UPDATED: New names and blog posts added.)
While many rightly and fairly struggle over genuinely difficult copyright questions, it has been the strategy of some of us to push for solutions to obvious problems first. The place of copyright in political debate is one such obvious problem. Technology has exploded the opportunity for people to comment upon, and spread political speech. Democracy is all about encouraging citizens to participate in that debate. And all of us, whether Democrats or Republicans, should push to remove unnecessary burdens to that participation.
Unfortunately, however, the uncertainty about the scope of copyright regulation is increasingly one such burden on Internet political speech. This next political cycle will see an explosion of citizen generated political content. Some of that speech will be crafted from clips taken from the Presidential debates. Some of that will be fantastically valuable and important. Yet as the law is right now, it is extremely difficult for an ordinary citizen to understand the boundaries of “fair use,” or the limits to copyright law. It is likewise difficult for companies such as YouTube, or Blip.tv. Indeed, it is even difficult for a skilled practitioner. That uncertainty, if not checked, could produce a cloud over much of this political speech, as sites and universities don’t know how much is too much. It will certainly create a temptation by some politicians to invoke copyright law to block particularly effective speech critical of them.
Some friends (old and new) and I are therefore calling upon both major political parties to make this problem go away. Not by changing the law, or by supporting some expensive and time consuming litigation. But instead, by simply promising to require of any network broadcasting Presidential debates (at least) that they license the debates freely after they are initially broadcast — either by putting the debates into the public domain, or by permitting anyone to use or remix the contents of those debates, for any reason whatsoever, so long as there is attribution back to any purported copyright holder. (CC-BY)
I am confident that I won’t like much of what this freedom will engender. But if that were a legitimate reason to regulate political speech, this would be a very different world. We should all, regardless of our political persuasion, be encouraging a wide ranging debate about our political future. And we all need to hear more from those with whom we disagree.
I am also hopeful that those typically on the other side of the many debates that we have had about copyright will recognize this proposal as one that strengthens copyright. The last thing a copyright system designed to produce incentives for authors and artists needs is to complicate judgments about “fair use” by accommodating speech that needs no real copyright protection at all. There is incentive enough for politicians to debate, and opportunity enough for broadcasters to carry those debates. We don’t need to add the complexity of a lawyer driven speech regulation into this mix.
Thanks to everyone who signed and helped to get others to sign. Please call the RNC/DNC to add your view. The letters are below. There is a press release here.
| Sen. Mel Martinez, General Chairman Hon. Mike Duncan, Chairman Republican National Committee 310 First Street, SE Washington, DC 20003 (202) 863-8500 |
Chairmen Martinez and Duncan:
We are writing to request that the Republican National Committee help usher in the next stage of the Internet revolution that has made democracy more accessible to regular people and made politicians more accountable to their constituents.
In this letter, top technologists, grassroots organizations, bloggers, and others are asking the RNC to ensure that all video footage from Republican debates is able to be shared, re-used, and freely blogged about without the uploader of the video being deemed a lawbreaker.
In 1996, presidential candidates communicated on websites for the first time. In 2000, presidential candidates accepted online contributions for the first time. 2004 ushered in a new type of Internet-based people-powered activism.
In 2008, we need to ensure that the promise of online video is not inhibited. In the past, television stations that broadcast presidential debates have retained exclusive rights to debate footage after the event was over. By and large, such contract terms were not noticed by voters, activists, or news junkies - there was no widespread forum for regular people to share video content even if they wanted to.
But in the age of online video sharing, corporations retaining exclusive rights to debate footage is an obvious barrier to democratic participation. No concerned voter should ever be labeled a lawbreaker for wanting to share video of a presidential debate with others.
We, the undersigned, request that the Republican National Committee publicly urge state parties and other Republican debate sponsors to specify in debate contracts that video footage will be put into the public domain or licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license - so that after the debate, the video will be free for anyone to access, edit, and share with others with proper attribution.
We ask you to follow the lead of C-SPAN, which this year announced they would allow expanded use of their video content by others - paving the way for a more informed electorate through online video sharing.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss details, we’d be happy to make time for that discussion.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Lessig - Professor, Stanford Law School & Founder, Center for Internet and Society
Craig Newmark - Founder of Craigslist
Jimmy Wales - Founder of Wikipedia
Brad Smith - Former FEC Chair, and current Chair of the Center for Competitive Politics
Michael Turk - Former eCampaign Director, Republican National Committee
Michelle Malkin - Conservative columnist and blogger, and founder of michellemalkin.com and hotair.com
Mike Krempasky - Co-founder of RedState.com
John Hawkins - Right Wing News
Robert Bluey - Bluey Media
David All - TechPresident and founder of The David All Group
Liz Mair - GOP Progress blog
Patrick Ruffini - 2005-2006 RNC eCampaign Director and blogger at PatrickRuffini.com
Matt Margolis - GOP Bloggers and founder of Blogs for Bush
Glenn Reynolds - Professor, University of Tennessee Law, and founder of Instapundit.com blog
Dr. William Greene - President, RightMarch.com
Shari Steele, Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fred von Lohmann - Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Intellectual Property issues)
Tim Wu - Professor, Columbia Law School & Founder of Columbia’s Program on Law & Technology
Cory Doctorow - Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California (post)
Paul Rieckhoff - Executive Director, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
Wade Henderson - President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Kim Gandy - President, National Organization for Women
Andy Stern - International President, SEIU
Karen Ackerman - Political Director, AFL-CIO (post)
Micah Sifry - Personal Democracy Forum and TechPresident.com
Arianna Huffington - Huffington Post
David Moore - Executive Director, Participatory Politics Foundation and OpenCongress.org
Josh Silver - Executive Director, Free Press
Carol Jenkins - President, The Women’s Media Center
Carl Malamud - Founder of Public.Resource.Org
Roger Hickey - Co-director, Campaign for America’s Future
John Schwartz - Founder of Free Speech TV, and FreeSpeech.org
Paul Jay - CEO, Independent World Television and TheRealNews.com
Helen De Michiel — Co-Director, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
Nicholas Reville - Co-Founder, Participatory Culture Foundation
Lark Corbeil - Founder & Managing Editor, Public News Service
David Michaelis - Director of Current Affairs, Link TV
Linda Jue - Executive Director, New Voices in Independent Journalism
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 863-8000
Chairman Dean:
We are writing to request that the Democratic National Committee help usher in the next stage of the Internet revolution that has made democracy more accessible to regular people and made politicians more accountable to their constituents.
In this letter, top technologists, progressive grassroots organizations, bloggers, and others are asking the DNC to ensure that all video footage from Democratic debates is able to be shared, re-used, and freely blogged about without the uploader of the video being deemed a lawbreaker.
In 1996, presidential candidates communicated on websites for the first time. In 2000, presidential candidates accepted online contributions for the first time. In 2004, your campaign helped usher in a new type of Internet-based people-powered activism.
In 2008, we need to ensure that the promise of online video is not inhibited. In the past, television stations that broadcast presidential debates have retained exclusive rights to debate footage after the event was over. By and large, such contract terms were not noticed by voters, activists, or news junkies - there was no widespread forum for regular people to share video content even if they wanted to.
But in the age of online video sharing, corporations retaining exclusive rights to debate footage is an obvious barrier to democratic participation. No concerned voter should ever be labeled a lawbreaker for wanting to share video of a presidential debate with others.
The Democratic National Committee recently announced it would sanction six official presidential debates. We, the undersigned, request that no debate get the official sanction of the DNC unless contract terms specify that video footage will be put into the public domain or licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license - so that after the debate, the video will be free for anyone to access, edit, and share with others with proper attribution.
We ask you to follow the lead of C-SPAN, which this year announced they would allow expanded use of their video content by others - paving the way for a more informed electorate through online video sharing.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss details, we’d be happy to make time for that discussion.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Lessig - Professor, Stanford Law School & Founder, Center for Internet and Society
Craig Newmark - Founder of Craigslist
Jimmy Wales - Founder of Wikipedia
Brad Smith - Former FEC Chair, and current Chair of the Center for Competitive Politics
Wade Henderson - President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Paul Rieckhoff - Executive Director, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
Kim Gandy - President, National Organization for Women
Andy Stern - International President, SEIU
Karen Ackerman - Political Director, AFL-CIO (post)
Eli Pariser - Executive Director, MoveOn.org Civic Action
James Rucker - Executive Director, ColorOfChange.org
Markos Moulitsas - Founder of DailyKos.com
Arianna Huffington - Founder of the Huffington Post
David Halperin - Director, Campus Progress & Senior Vice President, Center for American Progress
Alexandra Acker - Executive Director, Young Democrats of America
Roger Hickey - Co-director, Campaign for America’s Future
Josh Silver - Executive Director, Free Press
Carol Jenkins - President, The Women’s Media Center
Shari Steele, Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fred von Lohmann - Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Intellectual Property issues)
Tim Wu - Professor, Columbia Law School & Founder of Columbia’s Program on Law & Technology
Cory Doctorow - Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California
Micah Sifry - Personal Democracy Forum and TechPresident.com
David Moore - Executive Director, Participatory Politics Foundation and OpenCongress.org
Spencer Overton - Professor, GW Law & Founder of Blackprof.com blog
Robert Greenwald - Director, BraveNewFilms
Dan Manatt - Founder of PoliticsTV.com
Duncan Black - Founder of Atrios
Jane Hamsher - Founder of FireDogLake.com
Christy Hardin Smith - Front-page blogger, FireDogLake.com
Matt Stoller - Front-page blogger, MyDD.com
Chris Bowers - Front-page blogger, MyDD.com
David Waldman - Front-page blogger, DailyKos.com
Christopher M. Rabb - Founder and Chief Evangelist, Afro-Netizen
John Amato - Founder of Crooksandliars.com
John Aravosis - Founder of AMERICAblog.com
Don Hazen - Executive Editor, Alternet.org
Lowell Feld - Founder of RaisingKaine.com & former Netroots Coordinator, Webb for Senate (Virginia blog)
Juan Melli - Founder of BlueJersey.com (New Jersey blog)
Mark Nickolas - Publisher, BluegrassReport.org (Kentucky blog)
David Kravitz - Co-founder, BlueMassGroup.com (Massachusetts blog) (post)
Matt Singer - Founder of LeftInTheWest.com & former blogger for Tester for Senate (Montana blog)
Hugh Jackson - Founder of LasVegasGleaner.com (Nevada blog)
Myrna Minx - Founder of RenoDiscontent.com (Nevada blog)
Adam Green - Civic Communications Director, MoveOn.org Civic Action
Jane Fleming Kleeb - Executive Director, Young Voter PAC
Mike Lux - American Family Voices
Nicholas Reville - Co-Founder, Participatory Culture Foundation
Carl Malamud - Founder of Public.Resource.Org
Roz Lemieux - Executive Director, New Organizing Institute
Michael Silberman - Co-Founder and Director, EchoDitto
John Schwartz - Founder of Free Speech TV and freespeech.org
Paul Jay - CEO, Independent World Television and TheRealNews.com
Julie Bergman Sender - Filmmaker, Balcony Films
Garlin Gilchrist II - Blogger, TheSuperSpade.com (post)
Helen De Michiel — Co-Director, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
Jay Harris - President & Publisher, Mother Jones
Bruce Dixon - Black Agenda Report
Jill Tubman - Publisher, JackAndJill.com politics blog
Frank Emspak - Executive Producer, Workers Independent News
Lark Corbeil - Founder & Managing Editor, Public News Service
Tracy Van Slyke - Publisher, In These Times
Joel Bleifuss - Editor, In These Times
Roberto Lovato - New America Media
David Michaelis - Director of Current Affairs, Link TV
Ty West - Senior Producer, NOW on PBS
Marc Favreau - Editorial Director, The New Press
Ina Howard - Communications Director, The New Press
Linda Jue - Executive Director, New Voices in Independent Journalism
Rinku Sen - Publisher, Colorlines magazine
