The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) often seems to be subject to misuse, or abuse. Recently this act was used to (temporarily) silence Richard Bartholomew, who runs a very informative blog on religion and extremism. He had quoted controversial activist Charlie Flowers criticising Searchlight:
SWP/Searchlight are dog-vomit. Lower than paedophiles. In fact they should be treated as such.
Earlier Flowers had asserted that no one who wasn’t a member of his Facebook group could reproduce screenshots or members’ posts:
The next thing [Richard Bartholmew] knew his website had been taken completely offline after Flowers wrote to Dreamhost and complained that Richard had infringed his copyright on the 16-word quote detailed above.
I agree with this post’s conclusion:
But of course, and as Mr Flowers will quickly learn, using the DMCA to stifle free speech and journalism is not an effective long-term strategy and will serve not only to generate more interest in the material he’s trying to censor, but interest in advocates of free discussion such as Richard Bartholomew.
and hope this post has introduced Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion to some new readers.
