Ron Paul Attacks Santorum with Copyrighted Materials Taken Out of Context

[Katie Baker]

This discussion is not to endorse Rick Santorum as the GOP Nominee, but to prove how far some Ron Paul supporters have gone to distort the facts.

As many of you know, I have been investigating a video that was put on YouTube by the Ron Paul supporters or his campaign.  I have not yet traced down the original source of the video.  You can, at least for the present time, see the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxeg22lDFps.  The video opens with clips of Santorum stating he supports the Tea Party and then follows with a film clip which  edited one small statement from Santorum's Q&A Session:

"I have some real concerns about this movement within the Republican Party and the Tea Party Movement to sort of refashion conservatism and I will vocally and publicly oppose it and do my best to correct the record." 

The following video slide then states:  What will you tell us next?

I received a call on Tuesday of this week from PCN-TV in Pennsylvania and I spoke with Roseann Heller, who informed me that no portion of their videos were permitted to be used for any broadcasts due to their copyrights on the programs.  Copies may be obtained by contacting Roseann at 717-730-6000, extension 222. She stated whoever had made this video and whoever is displaying the video are in violation of PCN's copyright.¹  I then purchased a copy of the entire program, which I received on Friday.  The following is an exact transcript of the meeting at which Rick Santorum spoke and his response to the question from the Moderator at the Pennsylvania Press Club:

Transcript from PA Press Club 05/24/10 PCN-TV

24:05 Pennsylvania Press Club Moderator: Should the Public Accommodations Section of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill be open for revision?

24:11-25:35 Rick Santorum:  No.  Look I supported Trey Grayson over Rand Paul and there was a reason for that ... I am not a Libertarian and I fight very strongly against Libertarian influence in the Republican party and the conservative movement.  I don’t think the Libertarians have it right when it comes to what the Constitution is all about.  I don’t think they have it right as to what our history is and we are not a group of people who believe in no government.  We are a people that believes that government has a role to play: federal government has a role to play, state government has a role to play and local government has a role to play; and when there are clear wrongs in society, when there are injustices in society, sure you handle it at the local level if you can, but when the local and state level are in cahoots with the injustice, then the federal government has to step in and do something; and I’m just hopeful that is a mistake that will be corrected by Mr. Paul, but as I’ve said before, I have some real concerns about this movement within the Republican Party and the Tea Party Movement to sort of refashion conservatism and I will vocally and publicly oppose it and do my best to correct the record.

So now we know ... the rest of the story!

 

RESEARCH NOTES: 

¹Fair use is flexible; it is not uncertain or unreliable. In fact, for any particular field of critical or creative activity, lawyers and judges consider expectations and practice in assessing what is "fair" within the field. In weighing the balance at the heart of fair use analysis, judges refer to four types of considerations mentioned in the law: the nature of the use, the nature of the work used, the extent of the use and its economic effect. This still leaves much room for interpretation, especially since the law is clear that these are not the only necessary considerations. In reviewing the history of fair use litigation, we find that judges return again and again to two key questions:

• Did the unlicensed use "transform" the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?
• Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?

Both questions touch on, among other things, the question of whether the use will cause excessive economic harm to the copyright owner.

If the answers to these two questions are "yes," a court is likely to find a use fair. Because that is true, such a use is unlikely to be challenged in the first place.

Source:  Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video