Huh. Learn something new every day.

We just got back from Phoenix, stopped by Bookmans in Tucson and they had a collection of Emmerson, Lake & Palmer called The Return of the Manticore, a 4 CD set. I've been an ELP fan pretty much since I was a kid, so it was a nice find for me. But I learned a couple of minorly interesting things. First, Greg Lake was a singer in King Crimson. I've never really listened to them, so it might be worth checking out. But the thing that I found most interesting was a one-off relationship: Elton John auditioned as lead singer for King Crimson! I've been listening to a lot of Reg recently and was reading his bio somewhere.

McCain campaign stung by DMCA take-down notices for YouTube vids

Lots of videos that the campaign has posted on YouTube have been smitten mightely with DMCA take-down notices, mainly for not having secured the rights of various elements before posting. The people who own the rights, such as Jackson Brown (who is suing McCain for using one of his songs without permission), filed take-down notices and the videos have been removed. The campaign's counsel sent a letter to YouTube whining that the videos meet the Fair Use Doctrine rules.

Here's the campaign's whining: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/stifled-by-copy.html

Aside from Jackson Brown, Warner sued for them using Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You, and Fox News even slapped them upside the head for using debate footage.

Here's YouTube's response: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/youtube-to-mcca.html

Basically, YouTube tells them to shove off. They made their DMCA bed, now they have to sleep in it.

And that's the final irony: McCain voted for the DMCA legislation that greatly restricted Fair Use Doctrine.