Cuban v. EFF lawyer on YouTube, DMCA

hamtaro writes "Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and outspoken activist on copyright issues, exchanged some words with an EFF lawyer at this year's EFF 'Pioneer Awards'. The awards, held earlier this week, saw a heated discussion ensue about YouTube. Apparently Cuban feels that 'everyone knows' that YouTube is host to tons of infringing content and therefore it should be exempt from DMCA protections. You read that right: the EFF, defending the DMCA against Mark Cuban. 'Cuban is an interesting spokesman for copyright concerns since he has a broad perspective; as the owner of HDNet, he worries about having his content given away for free without his consent, but he's also someone who has funded EFF campaigns in the past, especially when the group defended Grokster's claim to legality. One of the strangest aspects of the debate was seeing an EFF lawyer defend the DMCA, which usually comes in for a drubbing due to its anti-circumvention provision. But von Lohmann told Ars Technica after the debate that the safe harbor section has actually allowed plenty of businesses to flourish that might otherwise have been mired in legal problems, and that it has generally worked well.'"

For those of you keeping count...

[Skyshadow]

For those of you keeping count, that's reason 2.02x10^63 + 1 to dislike Cuban.

Seriously, I wonder if he wakes up each day and says to himself, "You know, a lot of people hate my guts, but gosh darnit I'm still only the second-most hated owner of a sports team in Texas. What to do, what to do..."

Must be Law 2.0

[snowwrestler]

I've never heard of the "everybody knows" legal standards of evidence or applicability. Must be that new Law 2.0 I keep hearing about.

Re:It's difficult to pin Cuban down as to where he

[capt.Hij]

I think that you are confusing "has character" with "is a character." In some ways he seems like a class A jerk, but I respect him for funding EFF even if he does not always agree with him. I also like the idea of a nerd owning jocks (except for the racial overtones).