ISP Removes Fake U.S. Chamber Press Release From Internet

[The Straight Story]

ISP Removes Fake U.S. Chamber Press Release From Internet

A California internet service provider ceded to the demands of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and has removed from the internet a spoofed press release set up by the culture jamming collective the Yes Men. The release falsely announced the chamber now supports legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A wide variety of mainstream news outlets picked up Monday’s hoax announcement, which was followed by a staged press conference at the National Press Club featuring a Yes Men member posing as a spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce. The press conference was interrupted when an actual chamber spokesman burst into the room and confronted his tree-hugging doppelganger.

Though the Yes Men have come clean on the hoax, the Chamber of Commerce was evidently unhappy that the fake press release was still out there, sitting on a website modeled on the chamber’s own site. Citing copyright claims, the chamber demanded that ISP Hurricane Electric of Fremont, California, remove the page. The ISP took it down late Thursday, but as of Friday afternoon, the press release was being hosted by hosting.com.

“The website infringes the Chamber of Commerce’s copyrights by directly copying the images, logos, design and layout of the Chamber of Commerce’s copyright-protected official website,” the takedown notice (.pdf) to Hurricane reads.

....

The Tuesday notice cited the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which requires internet service providers to remove unauthorized copyright material at an owner’s request, or risk the same civil liability as the person who posted it.

...

A close read of the original release, which is not really by chamber president Thomas J. Donohue, makes it easy to conclude that it’s a fake, a hoax or a parody protected by copyright law, Zimmerman said. It does not matter that Reuters, The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNBC and others reported the fake news as real on Monday. The first question under a fair-use analysis under copyright law is: What is the nature and purpose of the work at issue.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/fake-pressrelease-flap/

[Canuckistanian]

1. "tree-hugging doppelganger"?

Somebody's been taking a creative writing class, I see.

[annabanana]

3. yup . . ."culture jamming collective"

no doubt.

[GrantDem]

2. Fuck the Chamber of Commerce

one of the most anti-American organizations ever. They have outlived their usefulness. I hope the hemorrhage of members continues.