The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has begun fighting back this week against one DMCA takedown abuser. The organization has filed a lawsuit against "paranormalist" Uri Geller for sending a takedown notice to YouTube over a video that heavily criticizes his psychic and magical abilities. The suit alleges that Geller and his company Explorologist Ltd. "knowingly and materially" misrepresented their claim under the DMCA when demanding that the video be taken down, and therefore violated the DMCA itself.

The video was originally created as part of the PBS series NOVA that ran in 1993, with an episode called "Secrets of the Psychics." In that episode, magician James Randi demonstrated a number of techniques that Geller likely used in his performances. The video also contained clips from various other shows—notably Geller's appearance on the Johnny Carson show where he was embarrassingly unable to demonstrate his abilities due to not being allowed to use his own props. On the whole, the video was highly critical of Geller's supernatural abilities.

That's when Brian Sapient came in, a member of a group called the "Rational Response Squad." The group's focus is debunking the claims of those who claim to be psychics or possess special powers, such as Geller. In November of 2006, Sapient posted a portion of the NOVA broadcast to YouTube as part of his group's mission to educate the public. In March, Geller and Explorologist sent a takedown notice to YouTube, signing a document saying that under the penalty of perjury, "I am the owner, or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed; I have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and this notification is accurate."

As a result, YouTube not only removed Sapient's video, they also suspended his account and all videos associated with it. Sapient promptly filed a counter-notice to YouTube, but by the time his account came back online, it had been suspended for two weeks. The problem was that Geller is not the copyright owner to the video and was not otherwise authorized to act on behalf of the owner (PBS). According to the EFF's complaint, Geller and Explorologist can only claim copyright to three seconds of the entire 13-minute video posted to YouTube—those three seconds of which the EFF describes as "a classic fair use of the material for criticism purposes."

Sapient, with the help of the EFF, seized this opportunity to turn Geller's obvious abuse of the DMCA into an example for other abusers."We filed the lawsuit to protect our client's free speech rights and to fight back again illegal use of the DMCA takedown process," EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz told Ars Technica. "We believe the sole reason Geller sent the takedown was to silence our client's free speech critiquing him."

"Back in 1993, there was no DMCA. Therefore, in order to censor the NOVA video, Geller would have had to go to court and affirmatively prove to a judge that the video was infringing his copyright—something impossible to do," Seltzer said.

This is not the first time a party has tried to use the DMCA to remove content from YouTube and have it backfire. Earlier this year, law professor and EFF staff attorney Wendy Seltzer engaged in a battle with the NFL over a clip of their copyright notice that she had posted online as an example for her students. The NFL filed a takedown notice, and she filed a counter-notice arguing that the clip constituted fair use. According to the DMCA, the NFL is required to respond to a counter-notice by taking the issue to court, but instead the league simply filed another takedown notice. Seltzer filed yet another counter-notice in April and continues to hold her ground against the NFL.

Should the court find Geller in violation of the DMCA, he may be forced to pay attorneys' fees, plaintiff's costs, and other damages. The EFF also hopes for an injunction against Geller and Explorologist, restraining them from bringing a lawsuit back against Sapient or the EFF. Schultz added, "If we win, we hope the judge will issue a strong decision that prevents not only people like Geller from abusing the law, but sets a precedent to hold future abusers accountable as well and deter similar illegal conduct."