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February 16, 2007BELTWAY BLOGROLL
The Pelosi 'Piracy' Spat ... And More Blog Bits
Bloggers are starting to react to yesterday's accusation, quickly followed by a retraction, that the new blog of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was guilty of copyright infringement by posting excerpts of floor debate from C-Span.
Some conservative blogs, like Capital Briefs and GOP Bloggers, were quick to jump on the accusation part of the story when the Republican Study Committee issue a press release with the accusation in it. Unfortunately, nearly 24 hours later, those blogs still have do not appear to have told their readers about the retraction issued by the RSC.
Two prominent liberal blogs, Daily Kos and MyDD, blamed C-Span for the controversy and said Congress needs to make sure the nonprofit doesn't own the copyright to official congressional video.
"Video access to the house is a major innovation in democracy," MyDD's Matt Stoller wrote. "Being able to remix and use that video in public speech on the internet is becoming increasingly critical to our democracy." And Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos urged Pelosi to do something to combat "the ridiculous notion that our government's proceedings can't be spread far and wide without running afoul of copyright laws."
Wizbang said the dispute over the footage posted on Pelosi's blog could have a long-term, positive impact for the blogosphere as a whole: "I'm of the opinion that the content that C-Span has aggressively worked to protect over the years really should be available to the public, and this may ultimately help the next blogger who gets a take-down notice from C-SPAN's lawyers. The real question in this case is would C-SPAN be so generous if if wasn't the Speaker's office posting the videos?"
As for Pelosi's blog, Republican new media strategist David All is impressed with what he has seen so far. "Unfortunately for House Republicans, it’s a pretty darn good blog, chock-full of interesting YouTube clips and her message."
Here are more blog bits for your reading pleasure:
-- Jerome Armstrong of MyDD is working with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to hire an eight-member Internet team for Kerry's Set A Deadline project to get U.S. troops out of Iraq. Politics and Technology also gave Kerry kudos for running the first Flash advertisement with Blogads in order to promote Set A Deadline. And Kerry was a guest of Heading Left at BlogTalkRadio this week to discuss the project.
-- Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was a guest blogger at The Victory Caucus, a new site that says its mission is to "deliver the perspectives and news on the war effort [that] the mainstream media neglects to help the American public understand the nature of our conflict and its true progress."
-- Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation, who now blogs at RedState, and MyDD's Stoller talked about their partnership in the Open House Project, which plans to make recommendations to the House on making its work more transparent to Americans. The project is backed by the Sunlight Foundation, which also is spearheading a citizen journalism project to analyze the transparency of congressional Web sites.
-- Democrat John Edwards is the first presidential candidate with an unofficial presence in the virtual world known as Second Life, according to techPresident. David All sees it as a second chance for Edwards to make a good impression online after the bad press generated by the first blog scandal of Campaign 2008.
-- From Blog P.I.: "Thanks to the Internet, and with the explosion of blogging especially, all of a sudden we political types have an easier time spreading around our dirt. In the past, we used to have to play by the rules of the old media: space limitations, kissing reporter’s butts and packaging the story just right. Now, and especially for big campaigns, all you have to do is leak it to a blogger."
-- Colin Delany of e.politics recapped the advice of online video experts who spoke at an Internet Advocacy Roundtable event. The discussion included several tips for making effective online political videos.
-- Joan McCarter of Daily Kos shared her thoughts about the blogging roundtable in Kansas that featured her and four other high-profile bloggers. One of her insights: "[T]he right blogosphere is dominated by professional political types -- many had already been media figures or relatively prominent GOP politicos before starting in on the blogging. In contrast, the majority of prominent left-wing bloggers came to it from outside of the political system."
-- The Washington Post profiled conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. Duncan Black of Eschaton clarified his criticism of Malkin as recounted by the Post's Howard Kurtz. Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters said Kurtz fairly captured Malkin's online persona.
-- On the local political blog scene, Greensboro City Manager Mitch Johnson complained about bloggers discussing allegations of impropriety in his office without contacting him for comment. As a result, Johnson now has agreed to meet with some of the city's bloggers. (Hat tip to Ed Cone.)
-- From The Washington Note: "[T]he issue of online expression in politically repressed environments interests me. Blogging seems to have a different vitality in an Iran or Afghanistan than it does in Japan, Canada or the U.S."
Posted by Danny | 12:32 PM
