

Dan Bull: Censored By Copyright For Protesting Being Censored By Copyright - mtgx
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120715/14504819702/dan-bull-censored-copyright-protesting-being-censored-copyright.shtml

======
obtu
A useful reminder. Universal already did this by removing from YouTube Kim
Dotcom's above-board rap video promoting MegaUpload. At first they made a
false claim of plagiarism[1], but it turns out they feel the tools they built
for copyright takedowns can be used for arbitrary censorship[2].

[1]
[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111209/14234917026/univer...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111209/14234917026/universal-
music-issues-questionable-takedown-megaupload-video-that-featured-their-
artists.shtml)

[2] [https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-video-reinstated-
univers...](https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-video-reinstated-universal-
says-you-cant-touch-us-111216/)

~~~
thesteamboat
I missed this story the first time around. Link to source?

~~~
obtu
Done. And it was Universal not Viacom, sorry about that.

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teamonkey
"Waiting for connect.facebook.net"

 _sigh_

Seriously, if you're going to add stuff like this to a website, PLEASE make
sure it does not turn your site into a big white blank page if anything goes
wrong. The only way I could view the site was to install Facebook Disconnect.

~~~
freehunter
Ghostery gets rid of that, plus a whole host of others.

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bediger4000
Tell me again how "copyright"/"intellectual property" and free speech are
somehow compatible?

~~~
imgabe
In what way aren't they? "Free speech" as a right is intended to protect your
ability to pronounce your original thoughts, which may be unpopular. It
protects you from the government silencing you for political reasons. It does
not:

1\. Require other private citizens to listen to you, or agree with you

2\. Require private corporations to broadcast your work or otherwise expend
resources to make it available.

3\. Give you free license to republish other people's work.

I mean, suppose I were to collect all of your Hacker News comments and publish
them as "The Collected Works of Bediger4000" without your permission and
without compensating you. Do you believe that should be protected as free
speech?

~~~
bediger4000
I don't see how getting Dan Bull to _not_ express his views is not censorship.
Perhaps not governmental (in the USA, in other countries, we have "Crown
Copyright").

As far as my belief goes, yes, you (and whoever would like to) should collect
all of my Hacker News comments, and republish them as widely as possible. I
personally don't believe in the legitimacy of the concept of "intellectual
property". Independent invention pretty much negates "intellectual property"
in my viewpoint, but I also believe that the harm of keeping other people from
doing things outweighs any benefits society (or individuals) get from
squelching some arbitrary expression.

So, collect and publish away! I still have my ideas, and when you distribute
them so will many, many others! We all win!

~~~
mcguire
I suspect the actual question should be,

"I mean, suppose I were to collect all of your Hacker News comments and
publish them as "The Collected Works of _imgabe_ " without your permission and
without compensating you. Do you believe that should be protected as free
speech?"

~~~
bediger4000
A flat "yes". I still stand by my rationale. imgabe didn't "steal" my ideas, I
still have them. So do more people, now that the ideas got spread around.
imgabe is more than welcome to go to the work of collecting, collating and
publishing anything attributed to "bediger4000" on hacker news. The price to
society is just too high otherwise. Also, maybe imgabe really did have those
ideas, maybe I'm already just copying.

But also, what's the harm? imgabe will be discovered as a fraud, when
he/she/it/them can't produce any more instantly viral, utterly quotable
3-sentence analyses of difficult situations. Or when someone tries to look up
a phrase in Google.

imgabe is not bediger4000. I have a natural monopoly on the witticisms of
bediger4000.

~~~
mcguire
All good points. Especially, "The price to society is just too high
otherwise."

------
keeran
The video in question:

<http://vimeo.com/45733369>

