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GOP Retracts Criticism of Pelosi's Blog
Republicans quickly retracted a news release Thursday that accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of violating copyrights of C-SPAN, the cable channel that televises House and Senate proceedings. The GOP took Pelosi to task because her new blog used video of this week's Iraq war debate, but then backtracked after learning C-SPAN had no copyright for the footage. The Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House members, contended in an afternoon news release that Pelosi's Web log violated copyright and trademark law by pirating "for partisan purposes" clips of members speaking on the House floor. The clips, hosted by the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube, have C-SPAN's logo visible.
Story Continues Below "As of noon today, the speaker had posted at least 16 videos that are copyrighted C-SPAN material from the House floor," according to the release from RSC spokesman Brad Dayspring. He cited an unnamed C-SPAN employee responsible for answering copyright questions from congressional employees. Not so, said C-SPAN spokeswoman Jennifer Moire. The videos on Pelosi's blog, called The Gavel, came from the House chamber, where the footage is shot by cameras owned by Congress, not C-SPAN. "That's in the public domain, it's owned by the American people," Moire said. Dayspring retracted the release two hours after it went out, saying C-SPAN general counsel Bruce Collins had called the committee and said the information from the release was incorrect. "The bottom line is, we were given contradictory information," Dayspring said in an interview. "We wanted to be clear that we are trying to operate where the facts are." Pelosi's spokesman, Brendan Daly, said the GOP committee's initial release was "another baseless attack by Republicans." In the six weeks since Pelosi, D-Calif., has been speaker, she has come under criticism by Republicans over how big a plane the government should provide for her use and over a minimum wage bill that excluded American Samoa from its provisions. Pelosi said the wage measure will be modified to include Samoa. Republicans charged it was excluded from the bill because of a large tuna cannery there is owned by Del Monte Foods Co., which has its headquarters in Pelosi's San Francisco district.
© 2007 Associated Press.
Editor's note:
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