Copyright Law Used to Shut Down Site

driptray writes "The Sydney Morning Herald reports that an Australian mining industry group has used copyright laws to close a website that parodied a coal industry ad campaign. A group known as Rising Tide created the website using the slogan "Rising sea levels: brought to you by mining" in response to the mining industry's slogan of "Life: brought to you by mining". The mining industry claimed that the "content and layout" of the parody site infringed copyright, but when Rising Tide removed the copyrighted photos and changed the layout, the mining industry still lodged a complaint. Is this a misuse of copyright law in order to stifle dissent?"

Re:Walk the Walk.

[NosTROLLdamus]

Computer aren't built of coal, dumbass.

Hilariously bad call.

[SatanicPuppy]

Parody is the get-out-of-jail-free card of copyright law, because in order for parody to be possible, you have to be able to copy the original work, at least to a point.

There is a tremendous amount of precedent and even law directed against this sort of copyright abuse, and, in the states at least, I'd expect it to be laughed out of anything but the most local and parochial courtroom.

Typical that it's big business pulling this crap...Energy company to boot. I hope they get slapped with all the legal fees, because that's clearly what this is about...Forcing the parody site to pay legal fees to win a case that they can easily win.

Stifle?

[Aladrin]

"Is this a misuse of copyright law in order to stifle dissent?"

If it is, it totally failed! I'd have -never- heard of this if they hadn't done this. Now it's got more publicity than the little website could have handled, had it been up. (Does this count as a pre-slashdotting? ie: Site goes down before it's on slashdot.)

Before, should I happen to see something about this in passing, I'd have said 'Pfft. Activists.' and carried on. Now I -know- the mining industry wants this hushed. Suddenly, it seems a little more interesting and probable.

Ehrm...

[Bromskloss]

Is this a misuse of copyright law in order to stifle dissent?

What did we say about ending with those silly questions?

You have to ask?

[Tesral]

Yes, in a word. IMNAL and I don't know Australian law, but the art of parody manages to thrive there as well as in the US. This isn't even really a question as much as a statement.

It is also typical of the new customer service model; "Your satisfaction guaranteed, or we'll sue you". Companies instead of answering the public or ignoring parody aggressively attack it. It's a step up from Mob tactics, but a short step.

Satire...

[Etherwalk]

It's called "satire." (And parody, of course.) I haven't liked it historically--although I do remember a fun article in a british pamphlet [gutenberg.org] from a while back about duelling. "Please, sir, show up at half-past ten in front of the convenience store so that we might stick swords in each other." Something like that... In any event, Colbert is the more recent example. The Colbert Report satirizes O'Reilly, and O'Reilly would certainly shut Colbert down if he could. Satire and Parody is one of the few parts of the constitution that has actually remained pretty powerful--that particular application of free speech laws. This is something that the U.S. does right.

Re:Walk the Walk.

[oohshiny]

After all, I would have thought that people opposed to mining would have avoided products that were built using mined materials.

Doubtlessly, you would have, if you view everything in black-and-white terms.

However, more thoughtful people realize that these things are a balance. Mining raw materials can be done responsibly and at moderate levels (far below current levels). But we won't get there if the mining industry just pretends there's no problem.

And this particular criticism was directed at coal mining. Everybody can certainly express their disapproval of coal mining by choosing products and energy providers that don't rely on it as much as possible. Note that some traditionally strong coal mining countries are giving up all coal mining over the next decade.

Ahhghhhh!

[cascadingstylesheet]

Stop tacking these 3rd grade essay questions on the end of each post!

It's not like Slashdot had no discussion happening before you started doing that, you know :)

Re:well..

[digitig]

It may well be legal in Australia, too; this looks like an ISP that rolls over and dies whenever a complaint is lodged. Nowhere does it say that the Minerals Council demonstrated a copyright infringement, it just says that they complained and the host took the site down. It hasn't gone to court, and it looks to me as if the Minerals Council is just hoping that Rising Tide won't have the resources to mount an effective legal challenge. I understand that such things happen in the USA, too.

Re:Is it?

[Headcase88]

"It has to be clear that the site is a parody, and not the actual site."

If someone can't tell the difference after reading a small sample of each site, then apparently the mining industry needs to hire better PR representatives.

Re:Is it?

[Achromatic1978]

Guess what? Parody is well established under Australian law, too, but this happened regardless. The issue is far more to do with misapplication of the statute to enforce your will on a much smaller entity, not an (I know, blasphemy here) inherent flaw in (at least this aspect of) copyright law itself.