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Description:
On November 18, 2008, Fox Television sent a letter to YouTube demanding the takedown of a video uploaded by Progress Illinois, an organization that "provides online news and commentary on issues important to Illinois working families and the progressive movement at large." The video, Beavers On Back-Door Pay Raises, was embedded in a blog post that examined how some Cook County commissioners were using their expense accounts for personal gain and contained a 26-second clip from a FOX Chicago newscast that had aired a week earlier.
Fox subsequently sent a second letter to YouTube claiming copyright infringement as to two additional videos, Axelrod: Obama Talked to Blagojevich about Senate Seat and Axelrod: "Our Job Is To Come In . . . With Guns Blazing", that included 1-2 minute clips from an interview conducted with President-Elect Obama's adviser David Axelrod on Fox Chicago Sunday that Progress Illinois embedded in a blog post on its website, Axelrod Comments On Open Senate Seat, D.C. Leadership Vacuum.
On December 10, 2008, YouTube removed the two videos containing clips of the Axelrod interview and, later that day, suspended Progress Illinois YouTube channel "due to repeat copyright offenses."
On January 5, 2009, Progress Illinois sent a counter-notification to YouTube pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, requesting that the three videos be restored and its account reinstated. (Note: lawyer Ben Sheffner at the Copyrights & Campaigns blog comments on some potential deficiencies in Progress Illinois' counter-notification to YouTube.)
Update:
1/12/09 - Progress Illinois, through its counsel Paul Alan Levy at Public Citizen, has stated that it is considering filing a lawsuit against Fox unless it withdraws its copyright objections.
1/29/09 - Progress Illinois' YouTube account has been reinstated.