Censored

The Pentagon recently ran into difficulties obtaining the rights to include some copyrighted material in a video made to teach employees to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.

The video also includes historic clips from the 1996 Olympics, the exploration of Titanic wreckage in 1986 and Hank Aaron hitting his record-breaking 714th home run in 1974. Those clips and others were copyrighted by organizations that would not give permission to release them, said C.Y. Talbot, chief of the Defense Department's Office of Freedom of Information and Security Review.

The Army lawyer, Council, said her law staff recently asked the organizations again for their permission and were denied. ``We couldn't get approval; we did our darnedest,'' she said.

Interestingly,

Citing the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, The Associated Press asked the Pentagon for a copy of the video nearly 18 months ago. The Defense Department released an edited version of the tape and acknowledged the irony of censoring a video promoting government openness.

but

Legal experts challenged the Pentagon's refusal to release the entire video, arguing it was improper under the Freedom of Information Act -- the subject of the videotape itself -- for the government to withhold records because they include copyrighted material.

Be careful what you ask for, people, because from reading these reviews, the video sounds like the same quality of stuff I have to put up with seeing on a routine basis, courtesy of Armed Forces Television.

``It was a little childish,'' said Jim Klotz, a UFO researcher in Seattle who also asked for the tape. Klotz routinely asks for federal documents and thought the government's own training video might be helpful. ``It wasn't bad; it covered the basics,'' he said.

Michael Powell, a Rice University student in Houston, asked for the tape for his graduate studies on information laws. ``Aesthetically, it was horrible,'' he said. ``The main character was obviously intended to be like Humphrey Bogart and had this terrible Bogart accent the whole way through.'

Welcome to my world, Mike.

The whole story seems rather silly, actually, a bit of news I didn't expect to find in the New York Times. Not sure if the news is slow in New York this week or the editors just couldn't resist the chance to run this headline:

A quote from the film:

Releasing or denying access to records can be a tricky business,'' the narrator says, impersonating Bogart. ``In the end it will be up to you to do the right thing and provide as much help as you can.

After all, we wouldn't want to upset the media, would we?