top
Palestine
Palestine
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Lieberman Ally Claims "Jewish Banking Plot" Sermon Copyright Protected

by Bruce Wilson, Huff Post (reposted)
On July 22, 2008 United States Senator Joseph Lieberman will deliver a capstone address at Pastor John Hagee's yearly Washington Christians United For Israel Summit and, presumably as an advance strike, prior to the conference, to suppress possible negative press coverage, CUFI lawyers have requested, alleging copyright violation, that YouTube remove a number of videos which contain footage from John Hagee Ministry broadcasts.
As Huffington Post political journalist Sam Stein describes in a July 8, 2008 report, more than 120 YouTube videos were taken down in the sweep. It's likely that CUFI's claim to copyright violation ranges, in many of the cases of these removed videos, from shaky to dubious and all the way, in the case of journalist Max Blumenthal's mini-documentary "Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized 2007 Christians United For Israel Tour", to absurd.

However the preemptive strike will keep the critical videos out of the way at least until CUFIs upcoming conference is over. Included in the videos purged was one, showcasing audio clips from a late 2005 John Hagee sermon, in which Hagee claimed that "God sent Hitler" and that Jews are not "spiritually alive." That video, broadcast around the United States and also internationally last May, led presidential hopeful John McCain to abruptly renounce Pastor John Hagee's political endorsement.

One of CUFI's lawyers told the Cutting Edge Press service, for a July 7, 2008 story, that "John Hagee Ministries, through its copyright attorneys, issued a request that YouTube remove any and all copyrighted materials belonging to John Hagee copyrights." If so, John Hagee Ministries has claimed copyright protection for John Hagee's version of conspiracy theory, identified by one national expert as clearly anti-Semitic, which closely resembled versions of the most notoriously vicious anti-Jewish conspiracy theory ever minted, "The Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Zion," that was put out in profusion in the decades leading up to the Holocaust, internationally, in The United States and, especially, in Germany.

Read More

During the week of July 1, lawyers representing far-right Pastor John Hagee demanded that YouTube remove scores of videos supposedly infringing on the copyright of John Hagee Ministries. YouTube acceded to Hagee's attorneys without even a cursory review of their claims. As the Huffington Post's Sam Stein reported, the maneuver resulted in the immediate disappearance of over 120 videos from YouTube -- almost all of which depicted the preacher in a negative light.

Among the videos removed by YouTube was my mini-documentary, "Rapture Ready: The Christians United For Israel Tour." Considering that my piece contained no copyrighted material whatsoever, it became apparent to me that Hagee's minions were guided by ulterior political motives. Instead of guarding their copyrights, they sought to stifle legitimate reporting on Hagee's far-out End Times ideology.

More
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$210.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network