Saul Hansell, writing on the NYTimes Bits website and in today's paper, discusses the McCain campaign's "right to remix on YouTube" as fair use, observing that McCain introduced a new position on copyright law" link here. His commercial ads had used snippets of TV news broadcasts, the news organizations complained under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, YouTube took the ads down, and the campaign complained, asserting that the mashups were fair use.

The incident has led the campaign to assert that the election is upon us and it can't wait for the issue to be adjudicated, so it should receive priority treatment. YouTube doesn't want to be forced to make the judgment on fair use. The Electronic Freedom Foundation opposes special treatment for political groups and wants uniform and extended fair use for all.

Hansell observes that given the unlikelihood of McCain's winning the election, he may never have the chance to lead the move to change the DMCA.

But this experience once again illustrates the fundamental absurdity of this law and more broadly, of copyright.