Remember Sandra Fluke? She's the law student who sent Rush Limbaugh into a multi-day rage for daring to speak out on behalf a friend who needed access to contraceptives for non-reproductive medical reasons. As a result, Limbaugh decided she was a promiscuous slut and prostitute who needed to videotape herself having sex for Limbaugh's own sexual gratification.
Overall, Limbaugh attacked Fluke an astonishing 53 times over three days. We took snippets of each of those attacks and spliced them together for the world to see, then uploaded it to YouTube.
Today, we got notice from YouTube that the clip had been pulled for copyright violation:
Dear dkostv:
We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from The Rush Limbaugh Show claiming that this material is infringing:
53 of Rush Limbaugh's most vile smears against Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke
http://www.youtube.com/...
The video is clear Fair Use. It's not even a close call. We've already asked YouTube to reconsider. And I'd be happy to litigate this issue with Limbaugh's lawyers in court, if they want to take it that far.
But I am perplexed—why is he suddenly so shy and retiring about his views on Sandra Fluke? He should be thrilled that us liberals are helping spread his noxious views. Or is he now embarrassed by them? In either case, we put the video up on Vimeo:
This isn't 1823, no matter how much Limbaugh might wish it so. He gets the video pulled from one place, it'll simply pop up somewhere else. If he really wants it offline, he's going to have to meet us in court. And even that won't do the trick.
That darn First Amendment will get in his way.