SLRC MAKES MSNBC PAY FOR UNAUTHORIZED USE OF CONFEDERATE EVENT FOOTAGE

BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC – After being contacted by the Southern Legal Resource Center, officials at MSNBC say they will pay a North Carolina video producer for footage of a Confederate observance which the network obtained and broadcast on nationwide television without the producer’s knowledge or consent. MSNBC has also agreed to delete the clip from its broadcast and Internet outlets.

Michael Chapman, a Wingate, NC – based videographer, consulted the SLRC after he received reports that excerpts of a documentary he produced several years ago had surfaced on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” as part of a searingly sarcastic attack on Southern preparations for the sesquicentennial of the War Between the States. The Olbermann segment, which aired Dec. 1, was labeled “Commemorating 150 Years of Treason.”

An exchange of telephone calls and e-mails between SLRC Chief Trial Counsel Kirk D. Lyons and Ken Powell, a representative of the Rights and Clearances department of MSNBC’s parent company, NBC, resulted in the network’s agreeing to pay Chapman an undisclosed sum for his video material. MSNBC also agreed, in its own words, “to make all reasonable efforts to remove the clip from airing on all broadcast and/or internet outlets it controls.” In a separate action, according to Chapman, links to the Olbermann segment have been removed from YouTube. Chapman said the footage may be viewed in context at www.dixieedu.org. Chapman said he was “extremely pleased with the settlement, which should send a message to the TV News industry who use our copyrighted material to bash us."

The Southern Legal Resource Center, founded in 1995, is a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of citizens involved in Southern heritage issues.