Intellectual Property Law

The National Organization for Marriage seems to be ratcheting up its efforts to suppress the audition videos that leaked from its anti-gay-rights "gathering storm" shoot.  According to YouTube, the group has gotten a clip from MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show pulled from the site.

In the segment, which aired Thursday, Maddow criticizes the group's ad, and shows 40 seconds of the audition tapes.  "We do not know how Human Rights Campaign got access to the audition tapes, but because they did, we do know that pretending to be a straight person hurt by gay marriage is apparently very, very challenging," she says.

The clip was previous available on YouTube, but now the page says "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by National Organization for Marriage."

MSNBC, of course, would have been well within its rights to demand the clip be removed. But NOM asserting a copyright interest to have a critical newscast scrubbed from the net? That sets an extraordinary precedent.

Update: The Rachel Maddow show writes in to point out that the clip is still available on MSNBC's website.  The section on the NOM ad begins at 2:15.