February 16, 2009

A rodeo watchdog group will receive $US25,000 from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in settlement of a claim over copyright issues.

The PRCA and the group Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) had locked horns over copyright in respect of videos posted on YouTube.

The settlement agreed between the parties also protects the advocates' right to publicise their critiques of animal treatment at rodeos and creates a new model for handling takedown notices in respect of their videos.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) represented SHARK, which videotapes and photographs rodeos in order to monitor and expose any animal abuse, injuries, and deaths.

SHARK posted dozens of critical videos on YouTube throughout 2006 and 2007.

The PRCA claimed that 13 of the videos infringed PRCA copyrights and YouTube disabled SHARK's entire account.

SHARK sued the PRCA for misrepresentation, noting that, among other things, the videos could not have infringed any PRCA copyright because the rodeos themselves weren't copyrightable.

In a just-released settlement, the PRCA will pay $25,000 for the improper removals.

The PRCA has also agreed that any future copyright claims will be first sent to SHARK's video contact and then reviewed by the PRCA's general counsel for legal merit before any legal notices are sent to YouTube or another video service.

In addition, the PRCA has agreed not to enforce a "no videotaping" provision in its ticket "contracts" against SHARK unless it enforces the same provision against others, meaning the PRCA will no longer be able to selectively enforce the provision against its critics.

"We're very pleased with this settlement," said SHARK Senior Investigator Michael Kobliska. "We have a First Amendment right to question how animals are treated at rodeos and to publicise the inhumane treatment we witness. This agreement lets SHARK continue its work without unfair interference."

This settlement is part of EFF's No Downtime for Free Speech Campaign, which works to protect online expression in the face of baseless copyright claims.

EFF has seen people and organizations increasingly misusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other intellectual property laws to demand that material be immediately taken down even when the material clearly does not infringe any legal rights.

Service providers often comply with these requests without double-checking them, depriving groups such as SHARK of a crucial mechanism for spreading their message.

"As demonstrated in our recent Presidential campaign, YouTube and other content-sharing sites have become an integral part of American discourse," said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Michael Kwun. "When critical videos are unfairly removed from the public eye, free speech and debate suffers."

Co-counsel Charles Lee Mudd jnr, of Mudd Law Offices in Chicago provided substantial assistance with the case.