New Jersey Town Claims Copyright Over Public Meetings

from the good-luck-with-that dept

Copycense points us to the news of a New Jersey town, Hammonton, that is apparently trying to claim copyright over its public meetings and anything else broadcast over its public access network. Seems like quite a strange definition of public access television if the focus is on copyrighting all that public content. Even more troubling, of course, is this idea that public meetings in the interest of the public and paid for by the public, are now supposed to be covered by copyright. While the federal gov’t isn’t allowed to copyright stuff, we have seen local governments claim copyright over documents before — but claiming copyright over meetings seems like a bigger stretch.

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Comments on “New Jersey Town Claims Copyright Over Public Meetings”

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16 Comments
Just Another Moron in a Hurry (profile) says:

Being broadcast over a specific medium, even public access television, would have no affect on whether or not material is copyrighted.

I guess I would want to know if they are claiming copyright over any recordings made of the meeting, or only over some sort of ‘official’ recording made? If John Q. Citizen brought his camcorder in and made his own recording, and they tried to claim copyright over that, then there is a serious issue.

Minute Man says:

And this is why...

Power-grabbing meglomaniacs are the reason the founding fathers insured our right to bear arms.

They knew that when the power corrupted those in power and they needed to be removed… we had the duty and right to remove them.

Use those arms… in the voting booth… and remove idiots from office.

Justa Comment says:

How About Some Responsibility ?

Being in a place with really stupid city administration (COS), it seem like it’s time to hold minor public servants accountable for the execution of their jobs. So, if city official are too dumb to note they are working in public – they’re fired ! Same thing here with our city managers ‘losing’ millions of dollars because they can’t account for it – out with them !

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