Journalists Sue Massachusetts TV Corporation Over Bogus YouTube Takedown Demands

Posting Video Clips of Government Meetings Is Fair Use That Doesn’t Violate the DMCA, EFF’s Clients Argue

BOSTON—A citizen journalists’ group represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a federal lawsuit today against a Massachusetts community-access television company for falsely convincing YouTube to take down video clips of city government meetings.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts by Channel 781, an association of citizen journalists founded in 2021 to report on Waltham, MA, municipal affairs via its YouTube channel. The Waltham Community Access Corp.’s misrepresentation of copyright claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) led YouTube to temporarily deactivate Channel 781, making its work disappear from the internet last September just five days before an important municipal election, the suit says. 

“WCAC knew it had no right to stop people from using video recordings of public meetings, but asked YouTube to shut us down anyway,” Channel 781 cofounder Josh Kastorf said. “Democracy relies on an informed public, and there must be consequences for anyone who abuses the DMCA to silence journalists and cut off people’s access to government.” 

Channel 781 is a nonprofit, volunteer-run effort, and all of its content is available for free. Its posts include videos of its members reporting on news affecting the city, editorial statements, discussions in a talk-show format, and interviews. It also posts short video excerpts of meetings of the Waltham city council and other local government bodies. 

Waltham Community Access Corp. (WCAC) operates two cable television channels:  WCAC-TV is a Community Access station that provides programming geared towards the interests of local residents, businesses, and organizations, and MAC-TV is a Government Access station that provides coverage of municipal meetings, events, and special government-related programming. 

Some city meeting video clips that Channel 781 posted to YouTube were short excerpts from videos recorded by WCAC and first posted to WCAC’s website. Channel 781 posted them on YouTube to highlight newsworthy statements by city officials, to provoke discussion and debate, and to make the information more accessible to the public, including to people with disabilities. 

The DMCA notice and takedown process lets copyright holders ask websites to take down user-uploaded material that infringes their copyrights. Although Kastorf had explained to WCAC’s executive director that Channel 781’s use of the government meeting clips was a fair use under copyright law, WCAC sent three copyright infringement notices to YouTube referencing 15 specific Channel 781 videos, leading YouTube to deactivate the account and render all of its content inaccessible. YouTube didn’t restore access to the videos until two months later, after a lengthy intervention by EFF. 

The lawsuit—which seeks damages and injunctive relief—says WCAC knew, should have known, or failed to consider that the government meeting clips were a fair use of copyrighted material, and so it acted in bad faith when it sent the infringement notices to YouTube. 

“Nobody can use copyright to limit access to videos of public meetings, and those who make bogus claims in order to stifle critical reporting must be held accountable,” said EFF Intellectual Property Litigation Director Mitch Stoltz. “Phony copyright claims must never subvert the public’s right to know, and to report on, what government is doing.” 

For the complaint: https://www.eff.org/document/07-24-2024-channel-781-news-v-waltham-community-access-corporation-complaint

For more on the DMCA: https://www.eff.org/issues/dmca  

For EFF’s Takedown Hall of Shame: https://www.eff.org/takedowns