Chamber Of Commerce Strong-Arms Service Provider Into Shutting Down Spoof Site

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce demanded that the company providing Internet service for the Yes Men shut down their site on Tuesday, claiming the spoof troupe's fake version of the Chamber's site constituted copyright infringement.

"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," said the letter from the Chamber's lawyers, who threaten "legal liability" for the service provider, Hurricane Electric.

The mockup of the Chamber's site was part of the Yes Men's epic hoax, which included a phony press conference at the National Press Club, where a fraudulent Chamber spokesman announced that the superlative lobbying organization had reversed its controversial stance on climate change.

Hurricane Electric obeyed the Chamber's letter and shut down the spoof site. But in the process, they shut down hundreds of other sites maintained by May First / People Link, the Yes Men's direct provider (Hurricane Electric is its "upstream" provider).

"I wasn't able to only shut down that one website," said Benny Ng, director of infrastructure for Hurricane Electric in an interview with the Huffington Post. "The only way I could do it was by taking down their entire connection which I don't want to do but in order for me to comply with the [Chamber's letter] that was my only option."

Ng said the sites were down for an hour or so. He said he reconnected them after May First agreed to take the site off Hurricane's network.

"We were very unhappy with Hurricane Electric's response," May First's Alfredo Lopez told the Huffington Post. May First immediately "mirrored" the Yes Men spoof page -- he stressed that it's going to stay on the web. As for Hurricane, "They did that because they don't want to spend the time or the money on a lawyer."

The Chamber of Commerce, added Lopez, is "disgusting."

In a statement, the business federation defended its effort to knock down the site:

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"Consistent with our legal right to protect our intellectual property, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce requested that the Hurricane Electric, an upstream provider, take down a fake site that appeared to be, but was not, from the Chamber. The Chamber never requested removal of the web site theyesmen.org or theyesmenfixtheworld.com or any sites other than chamber-of-commerce.us. Hurricane Electric told us that it could not respond because it was an upstream provider. We took no other action with Hurricane."

Andy Bichlbaum of The Yes Men had strong words for the Chamber.

"This is a blow against free speech, and it demonstrates in gory detail the full hypocrisy of the Chamber," he said in a statement. "The only freedom they care about is the economic freedom of large corporations to operate free of the hassles of science, reality, and democracy."

Copyright law allows for "fair use" of copyrighted material "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research."

"This seems to be a pretty clear fair use case," said Matt Zimmerman, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, which is representing the Yes Men. He called the Chamber's letter a "nastygram" commonly used to scare people into removing stuff from the web. "People will frequently use this provision [of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act] when they don't really have a basis for doing so."

Zimmerman sent a letter to the Chamber's lawyers demanding they withdraw their takedown notice. The letter also pointed the lawyers to the "Free Speech" page on the Chamber's site.

Comments

[Vxx]

The phrase "intellectual property" is bogus in itself... there is copyright, trademark and patent law.

What the "Yes Men" did falls squarely into the Fair Use column of parody and satire. The CoC violated the portion of the DMCA which dictates criminal penalties for misuse of its provisions.

I believe the nearly technically illiterate CoC is stepping into a hornet's nest on this and other moves.

[KarlaElisa]

The 'terrorists' can all be found here, sitting on the board of the Chamber of Commerce:

http://www.uschamber.com/about/board/all.htm

[Blurp]

What bs. This is parody. Good to see the Yes Men site is back up.

[Artemis34]

If it is copyright infringement (and not humor) then go to the courts not the ISPs!

[sachazg]

So the chamber is really just a large organization looking out for the welfare of other large companies. And can't even accurately report their membership numbers. What a bunch of liars... every member company should QUIT to show them a lesson.

[booker52]

Unless this grp is a terrorist bunch how can their site be shut down?? Hello?? Every hear of freedom of speech. I am not sure this really applies, but this is BS that the Chamber of Commerce would have the power to shut down this website and the provider to follow their wishes.

[RedDogBear]

So If I want to start an online book selling company called Amazone.com and I pilfer all of Amazon's look and feel that is legal because I'm not a terrorist?

I'm not necessarily defending the Chamber of Commerce. I'm not a lawyer and I think you could make a case that what the Yes Men are doing comes under fair use and satire, but I'm just making the point that there are copyright infringemnets that can cause a site to get taken down other than terrorism and I also don't really blame the hosting company for wussing out. The legal fees alone, even if they win, to fight the CoC would be daunting for a small hosting company.

[sheila]

for the last time, the first amendment only prohibits THE GOVERNMENT and government-funded projects from restricting speech. it does not apply to private businesses who can pull or place content in their discretion.

the law that DOES apply is the copyright law and this idiot at Hurricane Electric should have spent $200 for the 30 minutes it would have taken a competent lawyer to write a response to the Chamber, proving fair use (parody) and refusing to comply with their request. the guy panicked, which is what the Chamber hoped he would do, but he completely blew it because he didn't hire a competent lawyer. very frustrating. at least Yes Men got a good attorney on the job.

[RedDogBear]

I find the Yes men funny but then when I think about what they are really acomplishing and how I would feel if for example right wing sites used the same tactics, I think its adolescent and counter productive. People on the left were rightly upset when a right wing PR firm sent out memos pretending to be from the NAACP attacking climate change legislation (Rachel Madow reported on this). Really this isn't very different. We've got the facts on our side we should leave the scams to the right.

[JessWonderin]

down boy . . . you are arguing TWO different things . . . one was an obvious parody/spoof and the "fake memos" were ACTUALLY FRAUD met to DECEIVE and CONCEAL the DECEIT . . . .

The Chamber is using the typical strong arm tactics of the corporate sponsors that masquerade as "small business Chamber members" to further THEIR agenda as a propaganda arm of the corporate climate deniers . . . 10 of the largest members provide 90% of THEIR funding . . . look at who is ON THE BOARD:
http://www.uschamber.com/about/board/all.htm

so who do you REALLY think they represent?????

[RedDogBear]

I'm not in any way trying to defend the Chamber. They are selling out the future of our children for the sake of a few extra dollars profit for the oil, coal, and other industries. All I'm saying is that just because they are evil doesn't mean that any and all tactics are legitimate to use against them.

And I agree if I had to choose between what the Yes men did and what the fraudulent PR companies who misrepresented themselves did the PR stunt was worse. But the point is that I think both were wrong and that as much as what the Yes men did was funny it was ultimately counter productive to the cause they are trying to advance. As I said the first time we have facts and reason on our side, we don't need to lie, as much as it might be kind of funny to do so.

[Rayme]

It looks like government doesn't do anything well.

[sheila]

relevance? what does the government have to do with this story? or are you just a sad dittohead mouthpiece who doesn't understand the content of news articles? rhetorical question, btw.

[MikeDu]

I see some irony that an institution that has worked for decades to clamp down hard on civil recourse to the courts for justice (*Scalito* never saw a corporation they didn't agree with) are now threatening to resort to the courts.

[Bernique]

How low can the Chamber go? If they don't lose MORE members after this ...

[ladyvoter]

The US Chamber of Commerce is more or less a GOP tool. It's work is irrelevant to average American businesses. I work with chambers of commerce in several states. None belong to the US Chamber and have no idea who their officers are. They do not speak for the entire business community, only a few. I think we should request a copy of their 990 to determine where they get the bulk of their funding.

[Bernique]

"Requests for '990s' will be DENIED" !!! -- Donohue

[MikeDu]

I rather think its the other way around. GOP licks the Chamber of commerce's... boots. If you're going to play the dominatrix game you've got to understand which party is uses the whip.

[Ameriki]

Move the site to a Canadian provider.

[jimme]

One can only imagine the money that these businesses could make if they didn't support this non-entity. The Chamber gets rich off of everyone elses hardwork.

[dorkenergy]

Of course, there is the question of whether the Chamber is capable of producing "Intellectual" property.

[zombywulf]

Of the Corperation, by the Corperation and for the Corperation, so sign the papers, Old man.