BoingBoing, Web Hosting and the First Amendment

MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow

I want to share with all of you a letter that I sent to The Rachel Maddow Show this weekend. She had Xeni Jardin on, who writes for BoingBoing.net, which I love. My big problem with the segment is that it left viewers with an overall impression that the DMCA was anti-free speech and that people should host offshore. I don’t agree, and to be fair I don’t know if Xeni does either, as it wasn’t even the primary focus of her appearance and they only discussed it briefly and in too little detail.

But our industry doesn’t land in the news all that often, and to appear in this context is what some would refer to as an ‘epic fail’. I understand that given the short time available on a news segment like that to explain our industry, the laws that govern it and the different types of players within it, a lot was left unexplained. But that’s exactly why I needed to take the opportunity to set the record straight.

Video and more after the jump.

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