KOIN-TV Threat: 'Delete Tweet Or Face Legal Action', Oregon Media Central Claims

OregonMediaCentral reports that Portland, Oregon CBS affiliate KOIN-TV threatened legal action over a single Tweet OMC posted to Twitter.

OMC says it heard buzz about an "embarrassing" YouTube video featuring KOIN-TV reporters, supposedly posted by YouTube user "kointastic." OMC tried unsuccessfully to get ahold of the video, which seemed to have been removed from YouTube.

Wondering whether there could be a story behind this "disappearing" KOIN-TV clip, OMC writes that it posted a query to Twitter (@OregonMedia) asking if anyone had seen it:

Anyone see the behind-the-scenes @KOIN_Local_6 videos posted by "KOINTASTIC" before the account was closed? http://3.ly/vBq

The link in the Tweet went to the YouTube search results page, which showed the disabled "kointastic" videos (since then, all of the results have been removed).

According to OMC, it subsequently received the following email from the KOIN News Director, with the subject line "Remove video links from your Twitter account":

The "kointastic behind the scenes video" lifted by one of your followers from YouTube, was stolen.
That is the property of KOIN Local 6. Kindly remove that posting and link so that we don't have to pursue legal action.

Thank you.

OMC exchanged a number of emails with the KOIN-TV news director (detailed here). Ultimately, KOIN-TV did not insist that OMC delete the Tweet since the link went to what was essentially a blank YouTube page.

But could you get sued for a Tweet?

Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig told OMC the answer was "no": "You aren't at risk because of a link."

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Comments

[thaneb]

04:44 PM on 12/09/2009

Guess Lessig was responding to the question, "could you be sued successful­ly" when he answered "no." However, as enforcemen­t of "frivilous suit" sanctions is so haphazard, big boys can still squash the little guy, even with a meritless suit.

[Matt Osborne]

09:55 AM on 12/09/2009

The station was bluffing. They don't have a leg to stand on.

[Danlantic]

12:15 PM on 12/09/2009

Let me expand your vocabulary­: Copyright.

Do some reading:

http://www­.nolo.com/­legal-ency­clopedia/c­opyright-l­aw/

[Helanren]

05:07 PM on 12/09/2009

Copyright, which applies to the videos in question, has no meaning with regards to the legality of tweeting/w­riting/say­ing/publis­hing "Do you know anything about....?­", or even on posting a link to where those videos can/could be seen. As quoted in the full blogpost:

"David Ardia, a fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and director of the Citizen Media Law Project, agreed. "Someone who merely links to defamatory or infringing material does not bear liability. Even in the context of hosting infringing material for a third party, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides a broad safe harbor. For these reasons, it is highly unlikely that a link posted on Twitter could open someone up to legal liability.­"

They didn't have a leg to stand on.

[lemondade]

09:59 PM on 12/08/2009

MUST BE THE PERSON WHO 'BROUGHT DOWN' MR WOODS. NOW, THEY DON'T LIKE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THEM AND WANT TO SUE.

I LOVE GOD.

[Downix]

07:44 PM on 12/08/2009

Does anyone else find it the least bit ironic at a journalism outlet doing this?

[ramblingjohnny]

08:34 PM on 12/08/2009

Yeah now am curious! If you want to keep something hush hush this is really not the way to go!

[shthar]

05:17 PM on 12/08/2009

So what was it?

I need closure on this gossip!

[Neurdpnex]

04:51 PM on 12/08/2009

Once again kids, ANYONE can be sued for ANY REASON by ANYONE ELSE at ANY TIME. The success or failure of the lawsuit is in the hands of the Justice System, of course.