While listening to various skepticism-related podcasts over the last week, I’ve been hearing James Randi bragging about one of his latest exploits in the war against Uri Gellar. Apparently Uri did some really bad magic trick on Israeli television, and someone posted said trick on YouTube.

Randi talked about how the copyright owner quickly told YouTube to take it down, but not before he “made a copy and spread it all over the Internet,” ensuring that everyone who wants to see it will be able to.

This from the head of the organization who began legal proceedings against me for (naively) trying to help spread the valuable messages of the speakers from The Amazing Meeting 4 by painstakingly recording, editing and posting them on the Internet. His wanton disregard for copyright (downright pride was shown in the fact that he did it) shows that other people’s copyrights are of no concern to Randi — just his.

I really hope things at the JREF start heading in a more above-board manner soon, as I think a lot of the work they do is very valuable. I just think they ought to behave in a more law-abiding manner in the future, especially considering they only exist because of the donations of people like me.

If you’re a member of the JREF, I think it’d be a good idea to drop them a line and let them know that copyright violation is a crime when they do it as well as when I do it, and that it’s not cool to sell someone else’s creation as if it were their own.

I’d do it myself, but I’m no longer a member.

Defined tags for this entry: TAM4