David Kittos, a refugee from Cyprus currently residing in the UK, filed a DMCA against Donald Trump Jr. for posting a photograph Kittos took of a bowl of Skittles to Twitter and had the picture removed.
“If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful?” the photo and accompanying text displayed, which Trump Jr. posted to Twitter. “That’s our Syrian refugee problem.” Accompanying the tweet was a photo of a bowl of Skittles.
Kittos, a refugee himself, took offence to this statement and previously discussed taking legal action against Trump Jr. However, due to U.S. copyright law, Kittos doesn’t have to go to court in order to have his work removed from Trump Jr.’s Twitter page.
A DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) can be used to demand the removal of a persons own intellectual property from the public. The full notice can be read here.
Description of infringement: The image of a bowl of skittles is mine and has always been set as “ALL RIGHTS RESERVED” in my flickr library It was copied and is being used WITHOUT my permission. I have never been contacted by Donald Trump Jr or any representative about the image, before of after it was used in the Tweet.
It seems that for the time being the notice has worked, with a notice reading “This image has been removed in response to a report from the copyright holder,” now accompanying the tweet. However Trump Jr. does have the option of filing a counter notice against the DMCA claim under fair use guidelines.
Lucas Nolan is a conservative who regularly contributes articles on censorship and free speech to Breitbart. Follow him on Twitter@LucasNolan_ or email him at lucas@yiannopoulos.net
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.