Let the copyright complaints continue! After blogger Perez Hilton got YouTube to yank the National Organization for Marriage‘s second ad (starring Carrie Prejean) off the site for copyright infringement, the Miss USA Organization is joining the fray with a cease and desist letter addressed to NOM for use of its broadcast in the ad.
Officially, MSO isn’t taking sides in the battle of marriage equality, but c’mon — they wouldn’t have ordered up billable hours from their attorneys if they didn’t want to shut NOM down. Um, we hope.
Next up, HRC exec director Joe Solmonese should start demanding royalties. Whatever. Doesn’t anyone understand Fair Use provisions under copyright law?
Hannah
Duh! In that one CNN debate with Baldwin, Gallager, and the two pageant women, Maggie told us that Prejean doesn’t work for her.
Good job, NOM. Keep exploiting people. I like seeing your organization called out for IDIOCY.
kevin (not that one)
I understand it, but I’d happily prefer NOM spend legal monies to defend it.
atdleft
I LOVE it! The NOMbies are drowning in a sea of idiocy! Is this why their “new media campaign” has been reduced to a bunch of Freepers trolling this site? ‘Cuz they can’t afford to rip off anyone else’s copyrighted material?
sal
she’s no longer “miss California” she “miss 15 mins”,so i agree with em….let her go down in flames ,taking that NOM with her too, and not the pageant
cufflinks
Oh let NOM keep their ad up. The more NOM gets airtime and a chance to justify themselves, the worse they look. It’s like quicksand, they more they kick around, the deeper they sink.
Plus, when Perez and the Miss USA Pageant start doing the “cease and desist” routine it makes it look like the pro-gay marriage side has something to hide. And we don’t.
Cam
Cufflinks you said “Plus, when Perez and the Miss USA Pageant start doing the “cease and desist” routine it makes it look like the pro-gay marriage side has something to hide. And we don’t.”
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True, but also, it can look like “If you attack the pro-gay side, you better have a ton of money to defend. I don’t mind people being a bit scared to attack us with the usual crap they fling. I’m using the example of the Mormon church. They were all over CA. during the gay marriage issue, but the backlash and the possible investigations and lawsuits have kept them completely out of Iowa, Maine, DC etc… There is an old Russian saying that is kind of shitty but also kind of perfect.
If they won’t respect us, let them fear us.
atdleft
@cufflinks: I don’t think so. I think Perez & Miss USA Org. just don’t want their brands attached to the NOMbies. If the NOMbies want more ads, they need to either create their own material or receive others’ material the legal way.
DeanP
I really don’t understand how any of this is not covered by fair use. I mean, I’m only a 5th year attorney, so I might be clueless, but this seems to me to fall really squarely in the exception.
Addyboo
Let me get this straight… Miss California, a beauty queen who has absolutely nothing to do with making public policy, deserves to lose her crown and be vilified, but the President of the US, whose primary job is public policy, WHO BELIEVES THE EXACT SAME THING, gets a free pass? In what universe is that logical?
I still don’t get what all the hub-bub is about gay marriage. I thought one of the many perks of being gay is that you didn’t have to get married. I mean, straight people don’t even get married anymore.
But seriously, could someone please explain why there isn’t as much vitriol hurled at President Obama for his stance against gay marriage? He is actually in a position to do something about it, and no one seems to be putting any pressure on him.
B.BarNavi
@Addyboo: Because it will spell political death for him?
Jeezus fuck, I’m sick of anti-equal marriage folks citing the current President’s views, as if we are somehow Obama-worshipers. Yes, we are WELL-AWARE that he’s not for equal marriage, and NO, that doesn’t mean he’s not wrong.
marcus
Okay. This is absolutely hilarious. Remember how all the NOM parodies and the tryout videos were taken off YouTube because NOM was whining about copyright infringement? Check out their response to Perez’ claim of infringement here:
http://www.nationformarriage.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=omL2KeN0LzH&b=5075187&content_id={F448807E-B7C2-4E55-A3A0-C0A0C3238AEA}¬oc=1
Somehow they seem to understand “fair use” only when they see it as working in their favor. A quote from the NOM response…
“Mario, aka Perez, not only wants to redefine marriage, he is giving new meaning to the word ‘chutzpah,’” said NOM Executive Director Brian Brown. “Here is a guy whose very public persona is an infringement on a celebrity and whose own website, a commercial enterprise, contains hundreds of images of celebrities now claims that his profane attack on a young contestant – which he himself posted on the Internet – is somehow protected under the law. Nice try, Mario, but you said it and we intend to keep it in our ad.”
marcus
Hehe. Here they call it “copyright bullying” when Perez does it. I’m sure it’s just “an appropriate response to parody bullies” when they do it…
http://nomblog.com/?p=86