Barney at the White House
p2pnet.net News:- Barney, the US president’s Scottish terrier, lives an exciting life, according to the White House site.
He’s been, “a part of three ‘films’ on the White House web site,” says the blurb. “Barney Cam, Barney Cam II: Barney Reloaded and Barney and Spot’s Winter Wonderland. [We count that as four. But never mind - Ed]
“Plans for future Barney films are underway.”
And that seems to be the trouble.
“At stake are Webcasting rights to video clips of Barney, the first pooch, and his antics around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave,” states CNET News. “The White House has so far denied requests from online publishers seeking copies of the third annual Barney holiday video, insisting on hosting the video exclusively on its own Web site while at the same time freely granting broadcast rights to TV networks.
“That’s got some online publishers, including the [Washington] Post, up in arms over a legally dubious double-standard and potential lost advertising revenue. Last year’s Barney video drew 24 million viewers to the White House Web site, a White House spokesman said – about the same number of people who visited political sites in the final month of the presidential race. Now plans for a new video promise to renew the tug-of-war over the taxpayer-funded project.”
Apparently, news sites “can probably” host the videos without the White House’s permission because Federal copyright law doesn’t include videos or any other material created by a government employee ‘of the United States government as part of that person’s official duties’,” adds CNET.
We thought you should know this.
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See:-
first pooch - Dogfight over videos of White House pup, CNETÂ News, November 19, 2004
