TX CD 10: Mike McCaul’s Campaign Steals Capitol Annex Content, Then Lies About The Aftermath

Earlier today, I discovered that some content from CapitolAnnex.com was used on a website operated by the campaign of Congressman Mike McCaul (R-Austin) without my permission.

I contacted the campaign and politely asked them to remove the content. I explained to the campaign that they were using the content without my permission and in violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. They said they’d call me back and let me know something. They never did, so I contacted the administrative contact for the website. I sent him and email and asked that the content be removed, and mentioned that if it wasn’t, I’d notify the media that a website of a Congressman’s campaign was violating the DMCA.

That was late this afternoon. Tonight, about 10 p.m. CST, I rechecked the offending site. The content was still up with a small change reflecting the URL of this site.

Realizing the McCaul campaign had no intention to remove the content, I sent a copy of the letter I sent the campaign to a few media outlets with a statement on the incident.

At the same time I was doing that, I was contacted by a member of the media and advised that the McCaul campaign had sent out the following press release:

MCCAUL CAMPAIGN REBUFFS LAWSUIT THREAT FROM LIBERAL BLOGGER

AUSTIN – This afternoon the McCaul campaign received a call from Vince Lebowitz of Capitol Annex, an Austin-based political blog, in which Lebowitz threatened to “sue” the McCaul campaign within 20 minutes for reposting information originally posted some months ago on his blog.

In the posting at the center of the controversy, Larry Joe Doherty demeans students at Prarieview A&M by saying:

“I guess I should speak ‘dog,’ right? It’s ok to speak ‘dog’?”

Lebowitz then prods his readers to ponder the question “one has to wonder if Doherty is really the right man for the job in CD 10.”

In another portion of his posting, he comments harshly on Mr. Doherty repeated demeaning comments on Africian-Americans.

Apparently, the information, now posted on www.(McCaul’s campaign site).com, had been removed from Capitol Annex after Mr. Doherty won the Democratic nomination for Congressional District 10.

“Our campaign understands that Larry Joe Doherty has gained almost 80% of his money from his trial lawyer buddies and can easily find an attorney to file this bogus claim.  But, because of the First Amendment, we are going to keep the posting online at www.(McCaul’s site).com,” said campaign spokesperson Mike Rosen.

First, I’ll give you my statement in response to the garbage from the McCaul campaign:

“The claims made by the McCaul campaign in their press release are fundamentally false. I never threatened to sue the McCaul  campaign. I asked them to remove content that I own the copyright to, plain and simple. I did, however, tell the administrative contact for the domain that I would go to the media if they didn’t remove the content [a copy of that email is below]. Not only did I not threaten to sue the McCaul campaign, but they failed to spell my name right, and don’t even realize that my blog is not Austin-based. A DMCA cease and desist letter is the typical manner in which the owner of online content asserts their claims to copyright of his or her content. The McCaul campaign should know that.”

Here is the original statement I sent to the media with a copy of my DMCA C&D letter:

“This is a trashy, tacky attempt to make it appear as though I support Mike McCaul over Larry Joe Doherty in the race for Congress in the 10th District. Not only is the use of my copyrighted content from Capitol Annex a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it is a blatant attempt to make it appear as though a prominent progressive blogger is supporting McCaul over Larry Joe Doherty. This is typical of the nauseating brand of Tom DeLay-inspired politics that is typical of Mike McCaul’s campaign. I have sent Congressman McCaul’s campaign a cease and desist letter and expect them to take down the content at once.”

“The McCaul campaign’s use of the content without the copyright owner’s express permission is a violation of the DMCA. The fact that the McCaul campaign has continued to keep the content up is a continuing violation,” said Leibowitz. “I can’t believe that the campaign of a United States Congressman refuses to remove copyrighted material from his website after he’s been explicitly asked to remove it,” he continued.

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