Stanford Center for Internet and Society

Last month we filed suit against Viacom for taking down Robert Greenwald's parody of the Colbert Report. We are happy to report that Viacom has conceded it should not have done so, agreed to withdraw its objections to the parody, and also agreed to take steps to help avoid incidents like this in the future.

In return for that, we have dismissed our complaint, and are working with Viacom to establish specific procedures to avoid the takedown of protected material -- and to expedite the restoration of it once mistakes have been identified.

Personally, I applaud Viacom for doing the right thing here, and for its willingness to do more.

We are at the point where technology makes it feasible to share publicly the vast swaths of our history, culture and heritage that reside on radio, television and film archives. As detailed here, the BBC is taking the lead in that endeavor, having apparently announced plans to make its entire archive available for free.

As detailed in this article from Salon, the the Estate of Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss) was not amused when somebody decided that Green Eggs And Ham is really best when reinterpreted by Bob Dylan -- or at least a good impersonation of him -- and set to music.

The song itself is brilliant. You can learn more about it and hear it here, at least for now.

The Estate's response was irresponsible, if not simply abusive. Parody and satire, whether obvious or subtle, lie at the heart of Fair Use. So does this song.

Having obtained what she sought in her complaint (the right to publish her Electronic Supplement on the internet) and more (the right to publish it in print, too), Professor Carol Shloss has asked the Court to order the Estate to pay her attorneys' fees based on the unsubstantiated positions the Estate took for years, only to back down once finally challenged. Read Shloss's motion for attorneys' fees here.

While fair use can be murky in some respects, there is no doubt that parody lies at the center of its protections. Viacom had YouTube take down Robert Greenwald's clear parody of Stephen Colbert. While the parody is funny, silencing protected speech is not. So here is the complaint we filed along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation seeking a declaration that Greenwald's parody is protected by fair use, and compensation for wringful takedown under DMCA section 512(f).

View the video here

Last June we sued the Estate of James Joyce to establish the right of Stanford Professor Carol Shloss to use copyrighted materials in connection with her scholarly biography of Lucia Joyce. Shloss suffered more than ten years of threats and intimidation by Stephen James Joyce, who purported to prohibit her from quoting from anything that James or Lucia Joyce ever wrote for any purpose.

This video may be our first glimpse of just how different, if not revolutionary, the 2008 presidential election may be. The ability of ordinary people to create and share video content worldwide threatens to obliterate the precisely orchestrated messaging that has marked the media strategy of successful candidates. Say goodbye to the top-down control of broadcast media. Say hello to user-generated politics, where you have the power to control the message and shape the debate.

Our Documentary Film Program (announced here last week) is fortunate to be guided by an advisory board that includes some immensely talented filmmakers, including Kirby Dick, Arthur Dong, Davis Guggenheim, and Haskell Wexler.

It was especially exciting to see one of those filmmakers, Davis Guggenheim, win an Oscar on Sunday for his film Inconvenient Truth. His film is a fantastic example of the power of this medium, and it is wonderful to see it receive the recognition it so richly deserves.