On Tuesday, MySpace canceled the TedStevensFanClub account. The account hosted a pardoy song, written by law student Andrew Raff, where he sang Senator Ted Stevens' description of the internet as a "series of tubes" over a folksy ditty (listen to it here). Raff was informed that MySpace had received a "credible complaint of your violation of the MySpace Terms of Services." From Wired:
The cancellation e-mail referenced a number of prohibited activities, including trademark and copyright violations. MySpace also reserves the right to remove any profile for any reason.
But Raff, a recent graduate from law school, didn't violate any copyright laws in using the Alaskan senator's words, since government works cannot be protected by copyright. And Raff composed the music himself.
Raff doesn't contest MySpace's right to enforce its terms of service, but he sees a political lesson in the takedown -- a foreshadowing of the kind of repression of speech that could become commonplace if phone companies prevail in their efforts to create a two-tiered internet. In an e-mail interview, he also questioned MySpace's motives in removing his political commentary from the site.
"I'm not at all upset about MySpace taking the page down -- just curious as to why," he wrote. "I have yet to receive a reply to my inquiry as to why this account was deleted.... I am very curious about the reasons why they took this down -- if it is a case of extreme caution with regards to copyright or whether it is the result of some other influence (perhaps even good taste)."
Read more here. Interestingly, MySpace reinstated Raff's account Thursday afternoon following publication of Wired's story, syaing that the account was deleted in error.
