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WRPI's Dennis Karius Fired for Airing Senate Hearing

On January 19th Mr. Karius aired a Senate hearing on his radio show, 'The Portside'. The hearing was recorded from C-SPAN television so radio listeners could hear U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer questioning prospective Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice about her defending the war in Iraq, suggesting that her loyalty to President Bush and support for the conflict "overwhelmed your respect for the truth."

Radio talk-show host Dennis Karius was a local celebrity on WRPI.

Thirteen days later on February 1st, Karius was contacted through email by WRPI’s Executive Committee (ECOMM) with the first notice of “declearance”, even though the “copyright infringement” came to their attention the very next day, and had at least two meetings to discuss the issue. ECOMM is the Executive Committee of WRPI, comprised of all students, newly elected this past December.

Email to Karius from WRPI President:

“… you aired over 25 minutes of audio feed from C-SPAN's web stream. This is a gross violation of federal copyright law and consequently, WRPI's policy. C-SPAN's policy regarding the usage of their materials is spelled out clearly at http://www.c-spanarchives.org/lsinfo.php. It states explicitly that ‘C-SPAN video is not in the public domain’ as well as that ‘C-SPAN zealously and actively monitors and protects its intellectual property.’ By airing C-SPAN material on the air, you seriously jeopardized WRPI as a whole. This matter came to the e-comm's attention on January 20th. At our last meeting, the e-comm met to discuss this issue. Because of the severity and nature of the incident, we voted for your permanent declearance and removal from WRPI. This is effective immediately (including tomorrow) and means that you are not allowed on WRPI's premises for any reason. You are free to discuss this issue with me via email, or with us in person. If you would like to come to our e-comm meeting on Thursday at 7PM, please let me know. Please understand that this invitation is for you only and only if you have the desire to explain your actions - our decision is not under review.Thank you, Jeremy Kauffman”

Karius replied, “This really took me by surprise. If I did anything to jeopardize the station, I'm sorry. However I don't understand why you acted so severely without once communicating any warning, never offered the opportunity to defend myself… I never once had a problem with (this)…”

Mr. Karius wrote to TIC, “Since my audio originated from the U.S. Capitol Building and consisted of U.S. Senators, Representatives, and government employees, I felt confident I could share their words…”

C-SPAN actually admitted in writing, "Yes. The audio of the House and Senate is obtained from the House and Senate. We do not make a copyright claim on this audio."

Despite all this, Karius said, “I don't fault any ECOMM members for overreacting to these errors and exaggerations…exaggerated copyright violations and probable retaliation against our radio station… reacted like any board of trustees who were just entrusted with a precious institution.”

Furthermore, The NY Civil Liberties Union questions WRPI’s practices. Melanie Trimble, Executive Director of NYCLU wrote to the President of RPI, Shirley Ann Jackson, and copied the letter to Kauffman. Melanie Trimble writes, “We believe that the dismissal of Mr. Karius for allegedly violating federal copyright law, without giving him any warning or a hearing was unfair; it lacked any procedural due process which an educational institute should certainly zealously safeguard. We are also concerned that by this action, RPI is contributing to a questionable view of copyright and 1st amendment law. As you know C-SPAN does not make a copyright claim to the audio and has not made any claims against Mr. Karius for his broadcast… Mr. Karius should be (able) to continue his broadcasts at WRPI.”

Karius wrote to TIC that none of the audio aired came from C-SPAN's web stream. “This is important because the C-SPAN audio that I did provide originated from our government's Senate TV-Radio Gallery… Since C-SPAN does not own that audio, there are NO copyright restrictions on that audio.”

TIC talked to C-SPAN’s Archives Director, Dr. Robert Browning. “We get this all the time from public access. It’s our mechanism-all the cameras are C-SPAN’s. Our electronic creation of the material is copyrighted. We do not copyright the words. If you do the work to transcribe the words from the video/audio, then it’s yours.” Dr. Browning explained that C-SPAN is balanced, and there are concerns that long excerpts could be biased and therefore could create a negative perception.

Karius says, “If we can show that C-SPAN cannot prohibit retransmission of this public domain audio, I can show there is no merit to removing my show and, more importantly, we can enable broadcasters everywhere the right to share the words of their members of Congress with their listeners.”

“The copyright in a compilation or derivative work extends only to the material contributed by the author of such work, as distinguished from the preexisting material employed in the work, and does not imply any exclusive right in the preexisting material. The copyright in such work is independent of, and does not affect or enlarge the scope, duration, ownership, or subsistence of, any copyright protection in the preexisting material.” http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#103

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