Politics and Law

Google's advice on sidestepping a South Korean law against anonymous YouTube video postings and comments doesn't seem to be sitting well with some of the country's authorities.

Google, citing free-speech concerns, on Monday said it will comply with the Korean law--but by prohibiting uploads and comments rather than by requiring people to verify their identities. And it told people they could work around the constraint by visiting another country's version of the video-sharing site.

Now the backlash is beginning to set in, according to one Korean media report.

"Korea Communications Commission network policy official Hwang Cheol-jeung says that the commission will be examining whether or not Google has engaged in illegal activities in any of the various services it operates in South Korea," the Hankyoreh reported Friday, saying that could include many more Google activities than just YouTube.

The report also said Google's Korean chief, Lee Won-jin, defended the move on Korean TV. And an editorial in the same publication sided with Google, describing the law's origins in government's effort to "suppress criticism on the Internet" and calling the KCC's actions "childish."

Google didn't respond to a request for comment.

Citing free-speech concerns about an anonymity-blocking law in South Korea, Google has disabled the ability to upload YouTube videos or comment on them in the country.

"We believe that it is important for free expression that people have the right to remain anonymous, if they choose," the company said in a blog post that also tells people that they can get around the restriction by using a different country's version of the site.

A Korean law requires "real-name verification" for Internet services with more than 100,000 different daily users, Google said. Under the law, people must identify themselves with a name and identification number before they can upload video or post comments.

Google shared this translation of its Korean blog post, explaining the situation:

We have a bias in favor of people's right to free expression in everything we do. We are driven by a belief that more information generally means more choice, more freedom, and ultimately more power for the individual. We believe that it is important for free expression that people have the right to remain anonymous, if they choose.

Because of Real Name Verification Law in Korea, we have voluntarily disabled comments and video uploads when using YouTube in Korea with the Korea country setting, so you will not be required to verify your identity.

You will still be able to enjoy watching and sharing videos on YouTube. You may still upload videos and comments without proving your identity by choosing a non-Korean country setting from the top of any YouTube page.

We understand that this may affect your experience on YouTube. Thank you in advance for your understanding. We hope that you continue to enjoy and participate in the YouTube community.

(Via Google Blogoscoped.)

More than 100 days after Election Day 2008, the battle between Norm Coleman and Al Franken for a chance to represent Minnesota in the Senate rages on.

Keeping up these disputes costs money, and with a tough fight ahead for Coleman, the Republican incumbent has recruited as many GOP senators as one could fit into a two-minute video to solicit money for him on YouTube.

The Coleman campaign posted the video to its YouTube page on Tuesday. It features calls for financial help from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, and eight other mostly high-profile senators.

The video was posted one day before a three-judge panel in Minnesota denied Coleman's request to reconsider an earlier ruling to discard several different categories of rejected absentee ballots. With those rejected absentee ballots no longer in play, Coleman has less of a chance of overturning Franken's 225-vote lead in the race. The case could be appealed to a higher court.

"This fight that he's taking on to make sure that every ballot is counted represents the best in democracy, so anything you can do to help Norm financially to make sure that he can tell his story before the court is much appreciated," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says in the video. "This is the time to step up and help Norm because he's been there for us."

"We need 42 Republicans," says Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). "We need Norm Coleman to win his fight in Minnesota."

Coleman's video could be seen as one more example of how, after getting trounced by the Democrats' strong online campaigning in 2008, the Republican party is trying to appropriate some of President Obama's methods of using the Internet as a place to gather grassroots support and promote good governance.

The RNC hosted a Tech Summit earlier this month to gather ideas on how the party can better utilize the Internet in its campaigning. Also, House Minority Leader Boehner on Thursday released his second statement calling for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to post online the omnibus appropriations bill, which the House may soon vote on.

"If Democratic leaders plan to schedule a vote on the half-trillion dollar omnibus spending bill next week, they should post the legislation online immediately so the American people have adequate time to read the measure and understand what is in it," Boehner said.

(Credit: SHARK)

A rodeo association has agreed to pay $25,000 to an animal welfare group to settle a lawsuit over the improper removal of videos from YouTube that showed roped calves being dragged off to die and tasers being used on tame horses to get them to buck.

In December 2007, YouTube removed dozens of rodeo videos after getting takedown notices from the Colorado-based Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association that claimed copyright violations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The group that posted them, Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sued the rodeo group last summer. The group sued for misrepresentation, alleging that the videos could not have infringed any copyright because the rodeos themselves weren't copyrightable, the EFF said.

The EFF announced on Thursday that the two sides had settled the case. In addition to the payment, the agreement requires the rodeo group to run any future copyright claims by its own general counsel and by SHARK before notices are sent to YouTube. It also bars the group from selectively enforcing a "no videotaping" provision against SHARK.

The settlement, which is available on the EFF Web site (PDF), is part of the EFF's No Downtime for Free Speech Campaign, which fights misuse of the DMCA.

President-elect Barack Obama embraced YouTube when he started broadcasting his weekly address in both audio and video form, so it may have only been a matter of time before the Congress followed suit.

YouTube in conjunction with Congress on Monday launched two new platforms, the Senate Hub and the House Hub, that provide easy access to congressional YouTube channels.

Visitors can find their senators' YouTube pages by clicking on a map or using a drop down menu. While Washington, D.C. has no members to boast in either chamber, clicking the capital city on the map will take visitors to channels dedicated to congressional committees. While the hubs are maintained by YouTube, each individual congressperson's channel is maintained by his or her office.

The pages feature playlists like "Got a Question?" and "Behind the Scenes." Videos featured allow visitors to watch clips of floor speeches, committee hearings, and other activities on the Hill.

While some members of Congress may enjoy futzing around on the Internet as much as the next guy (in this video, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio proves his Internet savvy on Facebook), the 111th Congress marks the first full session in which senators and representatives can officially use third-party sites like YouTube. Both chambers voted for the rule change in the fall of 2008.

"While we may not see eye-to-eye on everything," House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says in a welcome video, shown below, "one thing we can agree on is the importance of utilizing technology to communicate with constituents."

For the first time ever, the president's weekly address to the nation will be delivered via video as well as radio.

President-elect Barack Obama, the Washington Post reported, will begin by taping this week's Democratic address at his transition office in Chicago on Friday, and the video will be posted on Saturday to Obama's transition site, Change.gov, via YouTube. Other members of the Obama administration will post online videos as well.

On Thursday evening, Obama's transition team co-chair Valerie Jarrett posted a YouTube video, shown below, to the site explaining the lobbying restrictions for Obama's transition team.

The tradition of the president addressing the public directly via radio dates back to President Franklin Roosevelt's "fireside chats" in the 1930s. Archived audio recordings of all of President George Bush's weekly radio addresses can be found at the White House Web site.

Delivering the radio addresses via online video is a logical step for the first president elected in the era of YouTube. The Obama campaign uploaded more than 1,800 videos to its YouTube page.

Technology CEOs and other business leaders are taking to YouTube to encourage their employees to tear themselves away from their desks for an hour on November 4 to go vote.

VoteHour.org, launched by Google, features about two dozen 40-second clips from the likes of eBay CEO John Donahoe, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Seagate Technology CEO Bill Watkins, and Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse. Executives from other sectors who made videos for the site include Borders CEO George Jones and Cintas CEO Scott Farmer. There are also about two dozen more written endorsements of the "vote hour" from executives on the site.

The site was inspired by the fact that, according to the U.S. Census, 20 percent of registered voters who did not vote in 2004 said they were too busy, making that the top reason for eligible voters to miss Election Day.

With just two weeks left until the presidential elections, a coalition of public interest groups is calling on both broadcast networks and YouTube to modify their approaches to copyright infringement claims that involve political content.

On Monday, groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and American University's Center for Social Media, sent an open letter (PDF) to CBS, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Fox, and NBC, asking them to stop sending Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown notices to YouTube over short clips of news footage used in election-related videos. (Disclaimer: CNET is published by CBS Networks, home of CBS News.)

"Not only are such notices contrary to the law, but they also threaten to silence an exciting new source of political expression," the letter says. "This new form of expression, often built on quoting and remixing from news and other mainstream media sources, does not threaten the copyright interests of your organizations."

The letter notes that the networks have sent takedown notices to YouTube targeting videos made by both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns. It cites complaints from Republican John McCain's presidential campaign that its videos were removed from YouTube on unfounded copyright infringement claims.

"We understand your organizations' desire to be seen as neutral, but given the extremely short nature of the news clips at issue and the context in which these clips appear, it is unlikely that anyone would believe that the use of the clips by a candidate means that your organizations are somehow supporting that candidate," Monday's letter says.

YouTube responded to the McCain campaign's complaints last week, saying it could not give the campaigns special treatment by conducting a "full legal review" of political videos subject to takedown notices before removing them.

Yet in a second letter (PDF) sent Monday, the coalition of public interest groups also asks YouTube to more carefully review videos in question. The letter says YouTube staff should review counter-notices, and YouTube should immediately re-post the video in question if it clearly falls under the category of fair use, rather than wait 10 to 14 days.

"The relatively small number of counter-notices filed by users should make this a manageable task for YouTube personnel," the letter says.

The letter also suggests that once a user has submitted a valid counter-notice, any takedown notices issued against his or her account should be reviewed by YouTube staff before acted upon.

"We understand that whether a particular video constitutes a fair use can be a difficult determination to make," the letter says. "Nevertheless, there are clear cases, particularly where short news clips are used in the course of a political video intended as commentary or criticism."

YouTube has rejected a request from John McCain's presidential campaign for a legal review of political videos that are the subject of deletion requests.

The Google-owned company said Tuesday evening in a response to McCain's organization (PDF) that it could not give campaigns special treatment and that it was "not in a position to verify" whether infringement complaints made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act were legitimate or not.

The McCain camp is upset that some of its political ads and videos, which used brief snippets of news broadcasts and other copyrighted material, have been the subject of DMCA takedown requests after they appear on YouTube. Often, the McCain-Palin campaign's general counsel said, those videos are "immediately" removed for 10 days, which is a long stretch of time during a presidential campaign.

The campaign sent a letter to YouTube on Monday asking for a "full legal review" of DMCA takedown notices sent to "political candidates and campaigns." Here is an excerpt from the response from YouTube Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine sent a day later rebuffing the request:

While we agree with you that the U.S. presidential election-related content is invaluable and worthy of the highest level of protection, there is a lot of other content on our global site that our users around the world find to be equally important, including, by way of example only, political campaigns from around the globe at all levels of government, human rights movements, and other important voices. We try to be careful not to favor one category of content on our site over others, and to treat all of our users fairly, regardless of whether they are an individual, a large corporation or a candidate for public office.

The real problem here is individuals and entities that abuse the DMCA takedown process. You and our other content uploaders can play a critical role in helping us to address this difficult problem...You can file counter-notifications. You can seek retractions of abusive takedown notices. You can hold abusive claimants publicly accountable for their actions by publicizing their actions...

We look forward to working with Senator (or President) McCain on ways to combat abuse of the DMCA takedown process on YouTube, including by way of example, strengthening the fair use doctrine...

One example of what upset the McCain campaign would likely be CBS News' successful DMCA takedown request to YouTube over the McCain campaign's lipstick-on-a-pig ad. It used a brief video clip featuring CBS News anchor Katie Couric to make a point about sexism. (Disclaimer: CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.)