User talk:BradPatrick/CSPAN

C-SPAN and Intellectual Property
C-SPAN maintains an intellectual property enforcement policy and "zealously and actively monitors and protects its intellectual property". C-SPAN produces nearly all of the programming that appears on its networks, and as such nearly all of its programming is fully protected by copyright.

House and Senate Floor Proceedings
The video of the House and Senate legislative sessions, which C SPAN and C SPAN2 distribute on a live and unedited basis, is produced by the respective Congressional body and is therefore in the public domain as a governmental work. C-SPAN has never asserted a copyright interest in the video of what it calls the "floor proceedings" of the House and Senate, in part because as a legal matter the video is public domain material.

C-SPAN also has a journalistic interest in distancing itself from the idea in the public mind that it is the producer (and therefore, owner) of the video coverage of the House and Senate floor proceedings. A viewer of the Congressional floor proceedings is not watching C-SPAN's view of Congress   the viewer is watching Congress's view of itself. According to C-SPAN, it offered to produce the video coverage for the House in 1979 (and later, for the Senate in 1986), but Congressional leaders declined because they wanted to control the cameras, thereby making the resultant video feed a governmental work rather than a journalistic one. C-SPAN nevertheless distributes the video because even Congress's version of itself is an important public record.

Although C-SPAN is best known for its carriage of Congressional floor proceedings they constitute a very small part -- just 15% -- of C-SPAN programming. The remaining 85% is copyrighted material, the vast majority of which is produced by C-SPAN.

Service Marks & Logos
Like most nationally-distributed programming services, C-SPAN keeps the name of its networks in the corner of the television screen at all times ... C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, or C-SPAN3. These names are its registered service marks and they appear on the appropriate video signal even when public domain video is on the screen. The use of the service marks (in the form of logos) on the screen is to identify the source of the programming; it is not intended to claim copyright. However, when C-SPAN has acted to stop unlawful use of its video, particularly political use, it has not hesitated to claim infringement of its service marks in addition to copyright infringement if the facts support such a claim.

House and Senate Hearings Coverage
In stark contrast to the floor proceedings of Congress, C SPAN is the producer and exclusive owner of its video coverage of Congressional hearings, both House and Senate. Unlike the Congressionally-produced video of the floor proceedings, C SPAN has full control over every aspect of its production of hearings including whether to cover them at all. As such, it owns the resulting video productions of the Congressional hearings, and rightfully asserts its exclusive rights in them. The network understands there is a perception problem on this point, however, because even relatively informed observers of Congress continue to make the mistake of thinking that C SPAN's video of hearings is free to use as public domain video, just as the floor proceedings of the House and Senate are free for anyone to use. They are wrong about that, and C SPAN says it continues to educate the public affairs community about its copyrights in the hearings coverage.

Event Coverage and Other Programming
Similarly, C-SPAN is the producer, and therefore copyright owner, of the variety of other public affairs events it covers off Capitol Hill and around the country such as panel discussions, campaign speeches, conventions, rallies, and the like. And, it owns the interview and call-in programs it produces such as Washington Journal, Booknotes, BookTV, Q&A, etc.

Controversy
Websites that have copied unauthorized C-SPAN clips of government proceedings have received requests to take down the content. For example, Dem Bloggers received a take down request for some clips they had posted. Additionally in February of 2006, WRPI's Dennis Karius was fired for airing audio from C-SPAN's web stream on his radio program. 

In May 2006, C-SPAN requested the removal of the Stephen Colbert White House Correspondent's Dinner performance from YouTube while allowing it to remain on Google Video.