The music publisher BMG Rights Management appears to have used the DMCA takedown process to remove another video of the commander-in-chief belting out "I'm so in love with you." The video, one of many uploaded in the wake of an event at the Apollo Theater earlier this year, was made by YouTube user sNewsCast. When Ars clicked the "play" button from our Philadelphia office, we got the message "This video contains content from BMG_Rights_Management, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."
Two other videos of Obama's singing, uploaded by the Associated Press and ABC News respectively, have also become unavailable. They bear the message "the uploader has not made this video available in your country," making it unclear whether these videos were also removed on copyright grounds. Numerous other videos of Obama's rendition of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" remain available on YouTube.
Ars talked to Sherwin Siy, a copyright expert at the public interest group Public Knowledge, about the copyright issues raised by presidential renditions of copyrighted songs.
Siy argued that the original Romney ad was "definitely" fair use given that it was "commentary and criticism and political speech." He said those were "core values of free speech."
Siy argued that raw footage of the president singing is also fair use. "Anything the President of the United States does in public is newsworthy," Siy told us. Posting a video of Obama singing—or doing anything else at a public event—is protected as news reporting, he said.
"You don't want it to be the case that you can blank out sections of the public record because they contain copyrighted works," Siy said. "It leaves you with an incomplete picture." Fair use guarantees that the public has access to as much information as possible about the activities of their elected officials—even if those actions sometimes seem frivolous.
Unfortunately, the law doesn't give YouTube much latitude to stand up for fair use if it wants to hold onto the protection of the DMCA safe harbor. The notice-and-takedown procedure requires YouTube to leave an allegedly infringing work offline for at least 10 days, even if the uploader files a counter-notice stating that the work is not infringing.
We've emailed BMG seeking comment on its takedown spree but have not received a response.
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