Judge tosses Michael Savage copyright suit against CAIR

Savage Nation
Originally uploaded by Steve Rhodes.

Several months ago, radio personality Michael Savage sued the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for copyright infringement (plus some RICO charges) because they rebroadcast just over four minutes from his radio show on their website in order to point out his use of anti-Muslim messaging, encourage advertiser boycotts, and raise awareness and money for CAIR's activities. CAIR (represented by EFF and Tom Burke of DWT) moved to dismiss claiming among other things that the use of the clip was a fair use.

Today, Judge Illston of the Northern District of California dismissed the suit, agreeing that the use of the material for commentary and criticism was a classic fair use.

Specifically, Illston held:

The complaint affirmatively asserts that the purpose and character of [CAIR's] use of the limited excerpts from the radio show was to criticize publicly the anti-Muslim message of those excerpts. To comment on [Savage's] statements without reference or citation to them would not only render [CAIR's] criticism less reliable, but be unfair to [Savage]. Further, it was not unreasonable for defendants to provide the actual audio excerpts, since they reaffirmed the authenticity of the criticized statements and provided the audience with the tone and manner in which plaintiff made the statements.

Check out the opinion here.

Comments

[Tony Kondaks]

For anyone who loves freedom, the defeat of the Savage lawsuit is a cause for celebration.
Savage hookwinked us all by telling us that this lawsuit was a cause for free speech. Yeah, it was about free speech but it was CAIR's free speech that was being infringed, not Savage's. Indeed, if Savage had prevailed, first amendment rights would have lessened for all of us.
America is such a great country that we even extend free speech to questionable organisations like CAIR.
Michael Savage is an ENEMY of free speech:
http://tinyurl.com/27ladx

[Lawrence Louis]

Michael Savage has always paid lip service to the foundational values of freedom and democracy, that built this country, but to use the courts as an instrument for censorship belies his rhetoric. It seems that Michael Savage only likes free speech when it bolsters his viewership and sponsorship, and then decries it when it works to reduce the number of people who listen to his program, or the money that comes to his program via advertisers.

I have listened to this man for the past five years and it seems that the only value he seems to consistently adhere to is hypocrisy. As much as I don’t like CAIR and its alleged nefarious connections, they have the right to speak, and use information, such as audio clips, to bolster their case. Savage has used audio clips from his adversaries, many times taken out of context, in order to substantiate his own argument against them. Yet, had the same so called liberal groups filed the same sort of frivolous lawsuit that Savage is levying against CAIR, he would have immediately leaned back on the notion of fair use.

Savage, and conservative pundits like him, extols the values of the economic free market and, by extension, the free market of ideas. If his ideas have true merit, and are valued by more people than those who value CAIR’s philosophy, then in a truly free market he will triumph. Just let the free market decide, Mr. Savage. Don’t use the courts to do the very same thing that you criticize your opposition of doing.