Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick


Print



EFF Tells Uri Geller His Psychic Powers Don't Extend To Using Bogus DMCA Claims

from the sorry-Uri dept

What is it about folks with supposed psychic powers trying to use bogus takedown notices to get rid of content they don't like. First there was the psychic who nastygrammed a site that was critical of her, apparently not using her psychic powers to recognize that the move would backfire, giving the critical site much more attention. Now there's Uri Geller abusing the DMCA. We mentioned last month that the (in)famous Geller has been using DMCA takedown notices to force videos offline that debunk some of his "psychic" powers. The problem, of course, is that in order to make a DMCA claim, you have to actually own the copyright to the content in question. In this case, apparently Geller (or, rather, his production company) actually owns all of 3 seconds of a 15 minute video -- which would pretty clearly fall under fair use. So, with that in mind, the EFF is now suing Geller for the bogus takedowns, noting that it's a clearly stated violation of the law to send a takedown notice on content you don't actually own the rights to. Let's see if Geller can now make this story disappear using his psychic powers as well...

6 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. by Anonymous Coward - May 9th, 2007 @ 12:26pm

    I bet they didn't see that one coming.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. by Old Guy - May 9th, 2007 @ 12:37pm

    Ahhh Geller's just a little bent out of shape

    hehe

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. by Old Guy - May 9th, 2007 @ 12:37pm

    Ahhh Geller's just a little bent out of shape

    hehe

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Re:

    by Anonymous Coward - May 9th, 2007 @ 2:31pm

    Awesome comment...cheesey...but awesome. ;-)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. There is no spoon...

    by Shadows - May 9th, 2007 @ 3:33pm

    Boy: Do not try to own the copyright to bending the spoon; that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.
    Neo: What truth?
    Boy: There are no spoons bending.
    Neo: There are no spoons bending or images there of?
    Boy: Then you will see, it is not the spoon that bends, it is only the law and yourself.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Uri Geller's Disease

    by rEdEyEz - May 9th, 2007 @ 6:17pm

    Wouldn't be quicker & easier for Uri to bend a few surface mount solder joints in the "offending" server or router then to actually take the time to stamp his feet/throw a conniption fit/call his lawyer?

    I s'pose that expending all of that "psychic energy" can be draining.

    I'm still working on changing lead to gold.

    Grasshoppa, snatch the pebble from my hand...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..
Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It