Facebook posted this warning to my account today:
We have removed your video entitled "Get Happy" uploaded at 9:55am January 19th, 2009. We did this because we learned that your video might include copyrighted material owned by a third party, such as a video clip or background audio.
If you are the copyright owner, or have permission from the rights holder to upload and distribute this material on Facebook, you may file a counter notice of alleged infringement by following the link below.
Please note that if you re-upload this video without filing a counter notice, or if you upload another video that infringes on the rights of a third party, our system will again remove the content. This could cause your access to the Facebook Video application to be disabled, or your Facebook account to be disabled.
The content in question is a fragmentary sample of "C'mon Get Happy" by the Partridge Family, running behind slow-motion video of Steve Garcia charging the camera in a flower-print dress. Whether this fragmentary sample is identifiably parodic enough as to be protected by Fair Use, I don't know. It is interesting to note though, that if you click through to their counter-notification claim form, they don't seem to care:
Please complete the following form if you believe we have made a mistake removing your video. However, do not fill out this form unless you own the rights to the video, or have permission from the copyright owner.
So basically, there is no defensible way to use even a fragmentary piece of rights-managed media in a noncommercial new work, and in a context that should legally have fair use protections. No, let me rethink that- the issue is that in this age of commercial, bottled in social networks, video sharing sites- big entities with a lot of rights holders to keep happy, that we all pour our content into- there's very little in it for them to go to bat for us on copyright claims.
Do I care enough to send fussy messages to Facebook about it? No, they provide a free service to me, letting me reconnect with all the people I didn't like very much in elementary school and hoped to never hear from again, and they get to protect themselves from lawsuits however they see fit. But, it's something to think about, as we rely more and more on these companies to facilitate our free speech, and our disturbing and retarded videos of friends leaping for joy in muumuus.
Update: Facebook seems to have mysteriously put the video back, without any additional information. I wonder if they read this?
