Personally, I wouldn’t mess with this guy.

Via the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an update on the on-going dispute between spoon-bending “paranormalist” Uri Geller and online critic Brian Sapient. The case turns on the concept of fair use of copywrited material for criticism and “a legitimate discussion of [Geller’s] abilities.”

Geller’s quest to shut down Sapient’s criticism started when Sapient uploaded video to YouTube challenging Geller’s assertions about his mental powers. The 14-minute segment came from a NOVA television program, but Geller and his corporation Explorologist Ltd. claimed the video infringed its own copyrights and had the video removed from YouTube. Sapient filed a counter-notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), had the video restored to YouTube, and sued Geller for misrepresentation.

One would assume that Geller then retaliated by bending all the spoons in the EFF’s breakroom kitchen, causing the digital rights public interest group to switch to tree-killing, but mind-bending-proof wooden stir-sticks.

For more on EFF’s view of the case, check here and here.

This entry was posted by T. Colin Dodd on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 11:04 am and is filed under Truth, Net Censorship, The Law, Copyright as a weapon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.