San Bruno, Calif. - Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube has rejected a request from the McCain presidential campaign for a more thorough legal review of copyright takedown requests made on campaign videos it has posted to the site, CNET News.com reports. The McCain campaign yesterday sent a letter to YouTube, complaining that several of its videos were taken down after copyright owners complained of infringements in the videos -- which the McCain campaign contends made "fair use" of the copyrighted materials.

"We fully understand that YouTube may receive too many videos, and too many take-down notices, to be able to conduct full fair-use review of all such notices," Trevor Potter, the campaign's general counsel, wrote in the letter, excerpted by Wired.com.

"But we believe it would consume few resources -- and provide enormous benefit -- for YouTube to commit a full legal review of all take-down notices on videos posted from accounts controlled by (at least) political candidates and campaigns."

Potter went on to note that the videos at issue include "fewer than ten seconds of footage from news broadcasts," and calls their utilization "paradigmatic examples of fair use."

In its rejection of the McCain campaign's request, Google and YouTube said they "try to be careful not to favor one category of content on our site over others, and to treat all of our users fairly, regardless of whether they are an individual, a large corporation or a candidate for public office."

The companies also pointed out that the campaign may file a counter-claim to have the videos reinstated, or else file suit against the copyright holder.

"The real problem here is individuals and entities that abuse the DMCA takedown process," continues YouTube's response.

"We look forward to working with Senator (or President) McCain on ways to combat abuse of the DMCA takedown process on YouTube, including by way of example, strengthening the fair use doctrine..."

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10066738-38.html

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/stifled-by-copy.html

http://snipurl.com/4e1v1 (Ars Technica)