Katie Kieffer, "a conservative new media tycoon", is crying foul after Minnesota's #2 Blogger of the Year made a satirical video about the most recent tea party protest.
In a sharply worded email, Kieffer is demanding prankster Robert Erickson remove the video from Youtube--or else.
Erickson's fatal error? Using 10 seconds of the "I Am Free Enterprise" Youtube video from Kieffer's blog, and punking Kieffer, who was a headline speaker at the Minnesota Tea Party Patriots annual tax day rally at he state capitol
In an interview with Erickson, Katie touts Christopher Columbus as a role model, and when pressed on his genocidal past, says she "doesn't remember Columbus murdering anyone".
Robert: There is an Illegal immigrant who is responsible for murdering a number of Americans, and now he's trying to seek asylum here - is there anything you would like to say to him?
Katie: ...
Robert: His name is Columbus.
Katie: Columbus? Maybe you should research history and look into Christopher Columbus because he was a very good guy and you should aspire to be more like him.
Robert: You mean murdering, stealing land, squatting places that aren't yours, things like that?
Katie: Well I don't recall Christopher Columbus murdering people...
Kieffer's reaction to the video, posted on Saturday, demonstrates that she's a bit thin-skinned for the public figure that she is.
In a legal-speak email message to Robert via Youtube demanding he take down the video, Katie apparently shifts her position on Columbus, branding him as a terrorist:
Robert,
You need to remove all content mentioning "Katie Kieffer" or Katie Kieffer.com from your You Tube video and chanel. Otherwise, I will be required to report your video as a copyright infringement, as it explicitly violates my copyright... You altered my video from my website and also misrepresented what I said. You misled me in the interview or I would have never talked to you. I obviously did not say that terrorists were good people. Remove this content from your video or I will file a claim against it since I own the copyright to this content, not you.
Though she claims Robert is violating her copyright, his use of a 10 second clip from her "Free Enterprise" video is clearly covered under fair use law.
Looks like this "Free Enterprise" blogger didn't get the joke--or appreciate Erickson's entrepreneurial spirit.
Erickson fervently hopes that Kieffer's understanding of the First Amendment isn't tested any further, as this sort of thing tends to make cross people like Kieffer the laughingstock of the Internet.