Great work, Justinsomnia

I, too, believe in freedom of speech and think the Justinsomnia blog did a good thing here. So did his lawyers and the ACLU.

Christian group backs off case against blog parody
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

Posted 3/23/2006 8:59 PM

SAN FRANCISCO — A Christian group that promotes heterosexuality Thursday quietly dropped its beef against a blogger who poked fun at it.

Exodus International initially claimed the altered image of one of its billboards by Justin Watt infringed its copyright. But Exodus is no longer pursuing the matter after Watt stopped using its "watermark" logo, Exodus President Alan Chambers said.

Watt, operator of the Justinsomnia blog, says he exercised free speech when he parodied the Exodus billboard, which says, "Gay? Unhappy? http://www.exodus.to/." Wyatt re-created the billboard on his site so it read, "Straight? Unhappy? http://www.gay.com/."

(Exodus uses ".to" as its domain suffix because ".com" was not available.)

Watt, 26, a Web developer in Northern California who enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union and high-powered law firm Fenwick & West, has posted his blog for four years. He posted the parody Sept. 19 because he found Exodus' message "offensive." A lawyer representing Exodus sent Watt a cease-and-desist letter on March 2.

The dust-up has made Watt a cause célèbre among bloggers. More than 40 other websites now carry the spoof.

Had the dispute escalated, it would have extended the debate over fair use of copyrighted material beyond print and electronic media and to blogs, says copyright attorney Tom Zellerbach.

Companies frequently ask websites to remove images and text out of concern they infringe copyrighted material. But high-profile cases involving bloggers have been rare, Zellerbach and other lawyers say.

The incident gained attention because Watt understood his rights and contacted an attorney, said ACLU lawyer Ann Brick, who represented him. "We don't know how often people get cease-and-desist letters and pull material without knowing their rights," she said.

"Just as the First Amendment allows Exodus to post its billboard, it gives Justin the right to post a parody," Brick said.


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-03-23-aclu-blog-case_x.htm?csp=27

Clooney didn’t write the blog

03.15.2006
On George Clooney's Blog
The George Clooney blog that was posted on the Huffington Post Sunday was published only after we received written approval from his representative to do so. Here's the story:
When I first invited George Clooney to blog after a screening of Good Night, and Good Luck a few months ago, he said he wasn't sure how a blog worked.
So we put together a sample blog from answers he had given on Larry King Live and an interview with the Guardian in London, and sent it to him to rework in any way he wanted.

A publicist who was working on the promotion of Good Night, and Good Luck, emailed back saying, "I will get it to him and get back to you as soon as I hear anything." Three days later, she emailed again, approving, without any changes, what we had sent: "Of course this is fine, Arianna!"
And once we had the approval, that's what we ran: George Clooney's words put into blog form.

This was an honest misunderstanding. But any misunderstanding that occurred, occurred between Clooney and the publicist. We based our decision to post on the unambiguous approval we received in writing. There was no room for misunderstanding in that.

Update: A number of commenters have asked me to clarify the process by which our bloggers post. 99% of our bloggers blog directly onto the site (they have a password that enables them to post on their own; the first time we see their posts is when you do -- when it goes up on The Blog). Of the other 1%, some e-mail us their posts, one or two fax them, and, if they are away from a computer, some HuffPosters will occasionally phone in their takes, which we publish for them -- again without any editorial input. Very, very rarely (in 10 months, it's fewer times than you can count on your hand), we will work with a first-time blogger the way editors do in other, traditional media -- suggesting ideas and offering direction on what makes a blog different from, say, a New York Times op-ed. Part of what we've always tried to do with HuffPost is bring to the blogosphere some of the most interesting voices of our time that are not already there. This is the first time there was no back and forth with the writer -- our sample was approved 'as is' -- which is where the misunderstanding occurred.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/on-george-clooneys-blog_b_17350.html

George Clooney

I read this morning what George Clooney wrote for The Huffington Post and cheered!

I Am a Liberal. There, I Said It!
I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it.
Too many people run away from the label. They whisper it like you'd whisper "I'm a Nazi." Like it's dirty word. But turn away from saying "I'm a liberal" and it's like you're turning away from saying that blacks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus, that women should be able to vote and get paid the same as a man, that McCarthy was wrong, that Vietnam was a mistake. And that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda and had nothing to do with 9/11.
This is an incredibly polarized time (wonder how that happened?). But I find that, more and more, people are trying to find things we can agree on. And, for me, one of the things we absolutely need to agree on is the idea that we're all allowed to question authority. We have to agree that it's not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out.
That's one of the things that drew me to making a film about Murrow. When you hear Murrow say, "We mustn't confuse dissent with disloyalty" and "We can't defend freedom at home by deserting it at home," it's like he's commenting on today's headlines.
The fear of been criticized can be paralyzing. Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the run up to the war. In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11? We knew it was bullshit. Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, "We were misled." It makes me want to shout, "Fuck you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic."
Bottom line: it's not merely our right to question our government, it's our duty. Whatever the consequences. We can't demand freedom of speech then turn around and say, But please don't say bad things about us. You gotta be a grown up and take your hits.
I am a liberal. Fire away.

It said many of the same things my family and friends have discussed between us for years. We wondered why we would know there were no WMD and shouldn’t be invading Iraq and that our elected officials didn’t. Were we more intelligent than they or what? My answer is... there was no way I would have been ‘misled’ simply because I never believed a single word this ‘chickenhawk’ thug living in the White House has spoken. Why would I trust someone who had to STEAL BOTH elections? Me, a liberal Kennedy Democrat! I imagine Barry Goldwater must be spinning in his grave seeing how his Republican party has been taken over by neo-con fascists! Even he wasn’t this hardcore!

Clooney was right about “too many people run away from the label.” The word liberal. It started back with Michael Dukakis and no Democrat seems to want the word attached to them anymore. I am proud of being a liberal, too.

I would hope that Democrats who are liberal would stand up and say it with pride and not be fearful of getting labeled ‘unpatriotic.’ Who gives a shit what the right-wing, neo-con fascists thugs in the Republican party label us? Quit cowering. Start questioning. Return our country back to the way it should be.

Republican President Theodore Roosevelt made a statement of which part of it says: “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” I want my liberal Democratic lawmakers to take this and run with it. Start questioning and stop fearing. As I write this I read that Democrats are distancing themselves from Senator Feingold in his attempt to censure Bush over domestic spying. Here goes that fear again...damn! Shame on Democrats who won’t stand with him.

Thank you, George Clooney, for sharing your thoughts.