LOL!

From The Raw Story:

Republican Study Committee backtracks on accusations that Rep. Pelosi violated copyright law on her blog

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recently launched a blog called 'The Gavel,' which features a large number of YouTube clips of House proceedings. Earlier today, the Republican Study Committee issued a press release accusing Pelosi of violating C-SPAN's copyright by displaying those clips on her blog. But the Speaker won this battle.

"Though we applaud the Speaker's effort to adapt to new technology, the blog violated copyright and trademark law on the very first day," the RSC press release stated. "As of noon today, the Speaker had posted at least 16 videos that are copyrighted C-SPAN material from the House floor. The RSC spoke with C-SPAN today, who confirmed that these videos violate C-SPAN copyright/trademark of the House proceedings."

The problem? C-SPAN doesn't claim a copyright to any footage of House proceedings because the cameras used are owned by Congress and not C-SPAN.

"That's in the public domain, it's owned by the American people," Jennifer Moire, a spokesperson for the channel told the Associated Press.

The RSC retracted the release, which also accused Pelosi of "pirating C-SPAN footage for partisan purposes," just two hours after issuing it explaining that they were "given contradictory information."

The funny thing about this (besides the fact that those RSC dummies seem to feel that they are the "Copyright Police") is that their statement that they "...spoke with C-SPAN today, who confirmed that these videos violate C-SPAN copyright/trademark of the House proceedings..." is almost definitely a bald-faced lie! They felt so sure of their facts that they simply went ahead and claimed that C-SPAN told them so.

Like I said...LOL.