Democratic Underground
| Headquarters | United States |
|---|---|
| URL | www |
| Launched | January 20, 2001 |
Democratic Underground is an online community for members of the Democratic Party in the Unites States. Its membership is restricted by policy to those who are supportive of the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates for political office.
History
[edit] | This section appears to be slanted towards recent events. (February 2023) |
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2020) |
Created on December 5, 2000,[1] Democratic Underground was launched on January 20, 2001. It describes itself as a "grassroots left-of-center political community" and "an online community for friendly, politically liberal people who understand the importance of working together to elect more Democrats and fewer Republicans to all levels of American government".[2] On Election Day 2016, the forum was hacked and rendered unavailable, which the site blamed on pro-Trump trolls.[3]
Criticism
[edit]Discussions from posters at Democratic Underground have drawn criticism. One example of this was the dialog about the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, in which a few posts explored the possibility of "earthquake weapons". The posts were reported on by John Schwartz on The New York Times and Brit Hume on Fox News.[4][5] An administrator also sent a letter to The New York Times, which was printed.[6] The site also saw criticism in 2003 when a poster explained why they wished to see continued bloodshed in Iraq.[7]
Copyright infringement lawsuit
[edit]In 2010, Democratic Underground was sued for alleged copyright infringement in a member's posting of a few paragraphs from an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The suit was brought by Righthaven, an entity that finds Review-Journal quotations online, buys the copyright for that story from the newspaper, and retroactively sues for copyright infringement.[8] In response to the lawsuit, Democratic Underground asserted that the quoted excerpt (five sentences of a 54-sentence article) was fair use, and counterclaimed against Righthaven for fraud, barratry, and champerty. Democratic Underground was represented in the case pro bono by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, attorneys from the firm of Winston & Strawn, and Las Vegas attorney Chad Bowers.[9] After Righthaven lost a similar suit against Realty One Group over 8 of 30 sentences quoted from a news article, Righthaven asked the judge in the case against Democratic Underground to dismiss Righthaven's claim against Democratic Underground.[10] On June 14, 2011, Judge Roger L. Hunt ruled that Righthaven be dismissed from the case because Righthaven had never owned the copyright of the article and gave Righthaven two weeks to explain in writing why it should not be sanctioned.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ "DemocraticUnderground.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info". Domain Tools. 2002. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ "Terms of Service". Democratic Underground. 2012. Archived from the original on December 11, 2024. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ Leyden, John (November 10, 2016). "Left-wing cyber-hangout blames security breach on pro-Trump trolls". The Register. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ Schwartz, John (January 3, 2005). "Myths Run Wild in Blog Tsunami Debate". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ Hume, Brit (January 4, 2005). "Disaster's Cause?". Fox News. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ Washington, David Allen (January 10, 2005). "Online Debate Forums". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ Taranto, James (November 5, 2003). "Dems Gone Wild--III". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 26, 2008. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ Green, Steve (August 11, 2010). "Righthaven sues Democratic Underground website over R-J posting". Las Vegas Sun. Archived from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ Green, Steve (September 28, 2010). "R-J owner faces counterclaim in copyright lawsuit campaign". Las Vegas Sun. Archived from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ Kravets, David (November 18, 2010). "Righthaven Says It Will Stop Suing Over News Excerpts". Wired. Archived from the original on October 14, 2022. Retrieved January 9, 2025.
- ^ "Righthaven Copyright Troll Lawsuit Dismissed as Sham" (Press release). Electronic Frontier Foundation. June 14, 2011. Archived from the original on September 25, 2022. Retrieved January 9, 2025.