Court Rules Fair Use, Dismisses Radio Host's Suit

MediaPost.com ^ | July 29, 2008 | by Wendy Davis

[Jim Robinson]

A federal judge has dismissed radio host Michael Savage's copyright infringement lawsuit against the Counsel on American-Islamic Relations, which had posted excerpts of one of his programs online.

Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco ruled that the clips, totaling four minutes out of the two-hour Savage Nation program that ran on Oct. 29, 2007, constituted a fair use.

"Defendants used plaintiff's material in order to criticize and comment on plaintiff's statements and views," Illston wrote in the 21-page ruling.

Savage filed suit for copyright infringement and racketeering last December. Among other allegations, Savage asserted that the CAIR took his statements out of context in order to harm his public image as well as to help the organization raise funds. The clips were excerpted from a program in which Savage said, "The Quran is a document of slavery and chattel," and that Islam is "a religion that teaches convert or kill, a religion that says oppress women, kill homosexuals."

Illston discounted both arguments. She ruled that even if the organization used the clips to raise money, doing so would have been a fair use of Savage's work. "The sum of plaintiff's allegations and evidence demonstrate that there will be no actual or potential market impact on the original work," she wrote. "The audience that might donate and listen to the audio segment on defendants' Web site is separate from the audience that plaintiff possibly could stand to profit from in using his Web site to sell the audio content at issue."

[whatisthetruth]

Are you trying to get yourself hired by Media Matters with your similar half-baked list of half truths and innuendo about Savage? Or are you already part of the hired staff?

Do you know David Brock? Are you a fan of David Brock? Would you like to meet David Brock? ARE you David Brock? Sheesh!

"Checkers da man!"

[whatisthetruth]

It doesn't matter what I say to you because you just don't have a clue, consider this:

"The Light shone in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not"

Long Island Pete*Lormand*Checkers