WordPress yanks gay rights interview after DMCA request
Blogging platform WordPress has removed an interview published by a user after a “heterosexual rights” group filed a request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Straight Pride UK, which uses the tagline “it’s great to be straight”, apparently demanded student blogger Oliver Chotham delete responses that it sent to him for an interview about gay rights.
According to Chotham, who wrote about the correspondence on August 11, Straight Pride UK told him he did not have permission to publish the answers, which were emailed to him in the past “few weeks”.
After Chotham published the interview, the group allegedly threatened to use the DMCA to remove the post if he failed to delete it within seven days. He refused.
“I assumed this would all be swept under the carpet, and that their rather sad attempts to remove my article because it made them look stupid were all for naught,” Chotham said on his blog.
“I was wrong – within a few days WordPress caved to them without question, removing my article and telling me if I tried to publish it again I’d be suspended, but that I could challenge the takedown of my article.”
Internet providers are legally obliged to remove content that allegedly infringes third party rights. Although both parties in this case are from the UK, WordPress is a based in the US and subject to its laws.
WordPress apparently told Chotham that he could respond to the DMCA order by “consenting to local federal court jurisdiction, or if overseas, to an appropriate judicial body”.
“I’m a student. I don’t have the money, time, or patience to go through with potentially having to go to court over this. All in all, I just could not be bothered to challenge the decision. So I accepted the takedown,” he said.
An interesting talking point in this case, said Ed Komen, partner at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, is whether a US court would have been willing to transfer the case to the UK if Chotham had requested.
“In my experience, UK courts don’t like to get embroiled in US law – and rightly so, as the attorneys and judges aren’t familiar with US law.”
Komen said that although WordPress had complied with the DMCA law, the case raises questions about the doctrine of fair use.
“In the US we are very proud of our right to say what’s on our mind, no matter how foolish we might look when people hear what we have to say. I am a strong believer in encouraging public debate and that everyone should have the chance to make their views known. I think the courts would be receptive to a fair use argument, but it’s not clear to see how it would play out.”
There have been very few – maybe one or two – cases specifically involving a fair use defence to a DMCA request, Komen said, but the fair use doctrine is frequently contested in disputes about the use of quotations or portions of someone’s copyrightable work.
“The cases are all very fact specific, but courts are receptive if there is a legitimate argument for asserting fair use.”
Despite taking down the article, Chotham says the dispute prompted a “storm” on Twitter and that some Internet users tracked down the original piece in web archives before publishing it.
Straight Pride UK did not respond to a request for comment. WordPress could not be contacted.
