The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is going after several television networks for issuing YouTube takedown notices on campaign videos.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is going after several television networks for issuing YouTube takedown notices on campaign videos.

EFF on Monday penned a letter to CBS, Fox, NBC Universal, and the Christian Broadcasting Network, and asked that they stop issuing Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices on campaign videos posted to YouTube.

"It is our sincere hope that, in the final days of this election season, you will stop sending DMCA takedown notices that target the use of short clips of news footage in election-related videos, whether posted by the presidential campaigns or by individual citizens expressing their views," wrote Fred von Lohmann, a senior intellectual property attorney at EFF.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's campaign last week sent a letter to YouTube requesting that it give a "full legal review" to all DMCA takedown notices aimed at videos from political candidates and campaign.

YouTube later rejected that request, but EFF said the problem is not with the video hosting site but with the networks that issue the takedown requests in the first place.

The McCain campaign identified CBS, CBN, and Fox as copyright owners who have targeted political videos on YouTube, while NBC has admitted to submitting takedown notices for videos from the Obama campaign, von Lohmann wrote.

"We understand your organizations' desire to be seen as neutral, but given the extremely short nature of the clips at issue and the context in which these clips appear, it is unlikely that anyone would believe that the use of the clips by a candidate means that your organizations are somehow supporting that candidate," he said.

Instead, these uses are "paradigmatic examples of fair use," von Lohmann said.

If someone spots a video on a site like YouTube that they believe to contain copyrighted material, they can file a DMCA takedown notice with YouTube. YouTube will remove the video and notify the person who posted it. If the owner believes they are within their rights to post the material, they can file a counter notification and YouTube will investigate. If the video is found to contain no offending material, YouTube must re-post the video within 10 to 14 days.

The McCain campaign argued that that 10- to 14-day period can be a lifetime during a political campaign. It urged YouTube to review videos from campaigns or candidates before immediately removing them from the site. YouTube said that extending that courtesy to videos for U.S. campaigns alone would be unfair, and that in most cases, it did not have enough information to make a judgment about whether the video constituted fair use or a copyright infringement.

The McCain campaign's request was "inadequate," according to EFF.

"It is not enough to protect the interests of political candidates and campaigns, while failing to safeguard the First Amendment interests of the millions of other YouTube users that post non-infringing political videos on a daily basis," von Lohmann wrote in a letter to YouTube.

EFF argued that YouTube should re-post non-offending videos immediately rather than waiting the usual 10 to 14 days.

"The relatively small number of counter-notices filed by users should make this a manageable task for YouTube personnel," von Lohmann argued.

Meanwhile, if YouTube finds that a takedown notice aimed at a particular account is invalid, all subsequent takedown notices regarding that account should not be pulled down immediately, according to EFF.

"YouTube should refuse to remove the video, secure in the knowledge that it has no need of the DMCA safe harbors," EFF wrote.

Von Lohmann acknowledged that YouTube does not always have enough information to make a fair use determination, but argued that "there are clear cases, particularly where short news clips are used in the course of a political video intended as commentary or criticism," he wrote.

YouTube, CBS, and NBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fox said it does not have any comment at this time.

Meanwhile, the Center for Democracy and Technology on Tuesday wrote a letter to the legal teams of the McCain and Obama campaigns asking that once the election is over, they publicize which "overagressive copyright claims may have stifled political expression during the campaign cycle."

"Wrongful takedown requests should have consequences, and public exposure is one way to ensure that they do," wrote Leslie Harris, president and CEO of CDT, and David Sohn, the group's senior policy counsel. "Disclosure could help promote public understanding of the role of fair use in civic discourse."

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 445 pm Eastern with comments from Fox and CDT.