IMP threatens Race to the Right

I offered the hacks at Inside Minnesota Politics to defend their assinine actions of late. They declined (go figure...cannot handle the heat). Then they gave a bit of a strongarm effort:

Hi Tony,
This is Peter's Producer Mike McIntee writing. I don't know Peter's
Thanksgiving weekend plans, but I've forwarded this to him.

You're certainly welcome to talk about the podcast and we do
appreciate the publicity. But please be aware that the audio from
the show is copyrighted and owned by TimeScape Productions Inc. If
you plan on using any audio clips from our site you'll need to get
TimeScape's written permission.

Best Wishes


Michael McIntee
Inside Minnesota Politics with Peter Idusogie
Minnesota's First Political Podcast
www.insideminnesotapolitics.com
insidemnpolitics@mac.com
Office: (651) 452-0530
Listener HOTLINE (202) 22-TALKS

Well, I do believe that Fair Use laws allow some rebroadcast. They immediately followed up with this beaut:

Andy,

I talked to Peter about your offer to appear on the show. He
respectfully declines.

You are certainly free to take issue with "Inside Minnesota Politics"
commentary on the 6th District Forum, however please note that we
also made the entire unedited forum (minus the last two questions
because we ran out of tape) available for anyone to listen on our
website. We also made it easy for anyone to listen to just a
specific candidate or just a specific issue that was discussed. If
anyone wants to know what was said, it is there in full. They can
hear it with their own ears and make up their own mind. If that's
not fair, what is fair?

No radio station is doing this. Local cable is playing an edited
version of the forum, but it is not available to everyone and it is
not available on demand.

A reminder that if you plan to use any audio from the "Inside
Minnesota Politics" website, you'll need to obtain written permission
from TimeScape Productions Inc. for use of its copyrighted material.

Again, thanks for the publicity and the offer to have Peter on the show.



Michael McIntee
Inside Minnesota Politics with Peter Idusogie
Minnesota's First Political Podcast
www.insideminnesotapolitics.com
insidemnpolitics@mac.com
Office: (651) 452-0530
Listener HOTLINE (202) 22-TALKS

Perhaps for my show prep I will review Fair Use case law. A request has been made for permission to use clips longer than Fair Use laws imply. (Any advice on this would be grand.)

********** UPDATE **********
Well from my quick research it appears that I don't need their permission.

If you are commenting upon or critiquing a copyrighted work--for instance, writing a book review -- fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the work to achieve your purposes.
...
The underlying rationale of this rule is that the public benefits from your review, which is enhanced by including some of the copyrighted material. Additional examples of commentary or criticism are provided in the examples of fair use cases in Section C.

(source)

Other links:
Wikipedia
Brad Templeton's 10 Big Myths about copyrighted material
Legal Information Institute

I'm out of time right now but will continue my research on this. I intend to use copyrighted material for the express purpose of commentary. So...it seems fair use covers this.

********** UPDATE **********
Thank you to Thomas, my contact at Legal Information Institute, for another relevant link.
CAMPBELL, aka SKYYWALKER, et al. v. ACUFF ROSE MUSIC, INC.