Romney Ad Yanked From YouTube Over Copyright Claim
The Republican's ad featured President Obama's rendition of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."
| Posted Tuesday, July 17, 2012, at 11:10 AM
Photo by Jens Buttner/AFP/Getty Images
The Great Presidential Campaign Ad Sing-Off may have come to an early end after a Mitt Romney video posted to YouTube featuring Obama's rendition of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" was pulled for copyright infringement shortly after it went live on Monday.
The ad, a rebuttal of sorts to a Team Obama spot that made use of Mitt Romney singing "America the Beautiful" (which is in the public domain), used the Al Green clip to suggest that Obama might be a little too cozy with his donors at the expense of the middle class, Politico explains.
The ad, however, wasn't long for the YouTube world and was pulled after BMG Rights Management filed a copyright claim under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. As the Washington Post notes, the ad appears to have been singled out for a copyright claim, as other instances of the president's vocal performance are still online.
The Romney campaign is arguing that their ad is protected under fair use and are seeking to get the video back on the site. But that could take awhile. Even if the campaign files a counter-notification with YouTube, they probably won't see the ad live again for another 10 days.
