Yesterday it came out that Jose Baez borrowed Casey Anthony’s poopie pants and is now deep in the throws of his own poopie-pants-dance over a parody that some “unnamed blogger” put up of him using one of his publicly published photographs on his Facebook account. According to unnamed sources Baez, seen stomping down north Orange Avenue with one of those big sticky pacifier rings in his mouth, mumbled something about he was going to go find a real lawyer who by golly would help him get his pictures back….or something to that effect. I think he wants to sue someone.
RUMOR HAS IT that the blogger in question is BlinkonCrime. And RUMOR HAS IT that the picture in question is this one…
A parody put together by either Blink herself or one of her readers – who cares who did it. Okay, first let me point out that the photograph above is copyrighted by Blink. She has the right to do that because it is a parody created and published on her site. I have now shared it with you on my website in a manner that actually meets the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) by providing a link back to Blink’s site and stating where I got it. In fact, if you look at the URL of the pic…I didn’t even copy it…I just linked it. BUT, let’s pretend Blink woke up this morning with HER poopie pants on and she didn’t like that I posted her picture on my site. Guess what? She has to follow the requirements of the DMCA in order to get me to take down this photograph.
What are those requirements? Well, she must issue a 24-hour takedown notice to me. But actually, there’s a little more leeway on my side than that. Because I am a non-profit, individual blogger…she has to issue me a takedown notice that requests I “expeditiously” take down the copyrighted material. In other words, me being one person, I am given time – because I might be in Zimbabwe with no internet tubes available – to take care of the issue. If I were a large profit-making internet site, the 24-hour take down notice would apply.
But wait…what if, instead of posting Blink’s parody pic I had taken it and further manipulated it in a manner to create a new parody of say…Blink? Or bloggers? Or sleazy lawyers???
Blink – as well as Baez – would now be in a nine-line-bind. Because it has been ruled in MoveOn, Brave New Films v. Viacom, that the right to individual citizens or organizations communicating their thoughts on the internet tubes TRUMPS the poopie-pants dance of entities not liking those parodies – even if those parodies are produced using what the poopie-pants entity thinks is copyrighted material. In fact, in that ruling, Viacom, who was using “automatic takedown notices”, had to agree to set up a hotline, review any complaints they received from online organizations/individuals who received one of those takedown notices and felt they were in error (i.e. say against first amendment protected parodies) and ISSUE A REINSTATEMENT NOTICE if the review found that Viacom had been in error!
So…I would suggest that Baez continue to look for that real lawyer, tread lightly, and pull that big stick out of his ass. Because he is not doing himself (or his clients) any good acting like a total moron in public.
P.S. to Blink…if you want me to take your picture down issue me a take-down notice. I’ve decided I’ll be in the Peruvian rain forest for the next week and I’ll get it down as expeditiously as I can. :D
Valhall.
Related posts:
- Caylee Anthony case: Why Baez wanted the phone call suppressed…
- Caylee Anthony case: State moves (again) to have Baez held in contempt
- Caylee Anthony case: Understanding the ‘dispute’ between Baez and Ashton
- Caylee Marie Anthony case: NeJame says…bad faith, bad bad faith! And smacks defense’s nose with a newspaper.
- Caylee Anthony case: Orlando Sentinel moves that Defense needs an intervention
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