Content Moderation Case Study: Using Copyright To Take Down A Transformative Criticism Video (2019)

Content Moderation Case Study: Using Copyright To Take Down A Transformative Criticism Video (2019)

4 years ago
Anonymous $y15ULlV7sG

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201223/15333345941/content-moderation-case-study-using-copyright-to-take-down-transformative-criticism-video-2019.shtml

Summary: In the fall of 2019, talk show host Ellen Degeneres was criticized after being seen attending a professional football game with former President George W. Bush. Degeneres addressed the controversy on her show, saying she was invited by the Dallas Cowboys’ owner, and also suggesting that she was friends with the former President Bush and that people should “be kind” to people they disagree with politically.

Rafael Shimunov took the video of Degeneres giving her side of the controversy and transformed it so that the background showed disturbing images from the Iraq War which was started by President Bush. The clip used approximately half of the video that Ellen herself had posted to YouTube, with the only change being the replacement of the blue background. Soon after that video began to go viral on Twitter, Shimunov and others who had reposted it received notices saying that the video was taken down due to a copyright claim under the DMCA made by someone working for Degeneres’ TV show.