Sam Hardy

Sam Hardy (or Samuel Hardy) is a left-wing student who has tried to censor a photo of the powerful left-wing politician Jeremy Corbyn with a Hezbollah terrorist flag at a pro-terrorist rally.

Introduction

Radical British leftist Jeremy Corbyn is a lifelong supporter or fellow-traveller of Islamic terrorists and other haters of the West. He has for decades supported or marched with Islamists, jihadists and anti-semites of many different types. Tragically, in 2015 he became leader of the opposition in the UK. He is more extreme than any British leader for a century or more. For any opponent of terrorism, Corbyn is terrifying.

Sam Hardy (or Samuel Hardy) is a young Corbyn supporter and activist. He went to one of Corbyn's pro-terror, pro-Iran marches in 2012 and took a photo of Corbyn, with a terrorist Hezbollah flag and Ayatollah Khomeini poster in the background. (The march was full of Hezbollah flags and Ayatollah posters.) Hardy made the error of putting this picture online.

He is now disturbed that people are using the photo to bash Corbyn. He has been issuing copyright complaints to get the picture taken off the Internet.

His copyright complaints seem bogus under US law. The "fair use" doctrine strongly protects use of copyright material for the purpose of political criticism, especially criticism of a powerful politician like Corbyn. To use copyright to try to protect a powerful politician from criticism is disgusting and shameful. The British voter has a right to see this picture.

Thankfully, Corbyn's leadership of Labour ended in 2020. But he still has followers. He is still an MP. He is still a presence in British politics. And the British public need to see this and similar photos.

The banned photo

Here is the photo of Jeremy Corbyn with a Hezbollah flag and an Ayatollah Khomeini banner.

The photo was taken at a pro-terror march in Aug 2012.
It was posted here.
After Corbyn became party leader in 2015, people dug up this photo. Sam Hardy tried to protect Corbyn and prevent British voters seeing this picture. He issued copyright complaints to get the picture taken down.
However, this was not about money. He is fine with his photos being used for pro-Corbyn or anti-Israel purposes: "If anyone wishes to use any of my photos for a charitable purpose or for the Palestinian cause, feel free to use my images". It is only pro-Israel and anti-Corbyn people he has a problem with. It is a politically motivated copyright claim, to protect a powerful politician. Like the copyright claims of the Church of Scientology.
He refuses to licence the photo to anyone who criticises Corbyn, even when asked to "name his price" by an Israeli newspaper.
He had the photo in his Demotix album but deleted it to stop people using it. So he certainly does not want money.
He had the photo in his Facebook album ("Al-Quds Day 2012 - London") but deleted it to stop people using it.
But the picture is out there. I live outside the UK. My site is in the US, where "fair use" protects use of the picture. My website is non-profit and my motive is entirely one of political criticism. It is a classic "fair use" case. Politicians can't hide from their crimes using copyright.

The pathetic left-wing paper The Independent agrees that the Corbyn side should be able to suppress this picture.
This ludicrous article says it was a "coincidence" that men with Hezbollah flags were walking behind Corbyn at a pro-Hezbollah demo which was full of Hezbollah flags.
They don't even mention the Ayatollah Khomeini banner. Is that another "coincidence" too?

Imagine if this was reversed:
David Cameron spotted beside Nazi flag on a Nazi march. (At which he spoke.) Tory activist works hard to suppress the photo, saying it is "totally out of context". The media calls the activist a principled hero.
Yes, that would really happen, wouldn't it?
The photo is also in the Huffington Post and DigitalRev and Phogotraphy. But these worthless articles take Hardy's side in approving of the politically-motivated censorship. So that's ok with him. It's only anti-Corbyn people he wants to stop.

Donald Rumsfeld with Saddam Hussein in 1983.
How would Sam Hardy and The Independent feel if reproducing this picture was banned under copyright law from a Rumsfeld supporter?
From The Independent.

Margaret Thatcher with General Pinochet.
How would Sam Hardy and The Independent feel if reproducing this picture was banned under copyright law from a Thatcher supporter?
From The Independent.

Sam Hardy's censorship campaign

Sam Hardy has been mounting a campaign to get the photo deleted to protect Corbyn. He is making copyright complaints to Twitter against people who post it.

However, it seems clear that these complaints are bogus under Twitter's own rules. Use of images of politicians for political criticism seems clearly covered by Twitter's own "Fair Use" policy (based on US law).

Sam Hardy gets a tweet by Julie Lenarz deleted to protect Corbyn.

And more and more.

And more.

And more.
Well done, Sam Hardy. Nobody will ever see that picture now!

Sam Hardy's views

Sam Hardy's attempts to censor the picture are not popular. People started writing about him and his anti-Israel views.

Odious Views Of Corbyn Cover-Up Photographer Sam Hardy, Israellycool, 18 Sept 2015.
And followup.

In response, Hardy started deleting his own tweets and finally made his tweets private to try to hide from the criticism.
Hey, you wanted this fight. And people who care about fighting terror are never going to stop.

Sam Hardy says in 2011 that the Jew-killing terrorist Yasser Arafat was a "freedom fighter".
(In response to the 2015 publicity, he deleted this post.)

Genius. From here.

Rob Scott

A similar case arose in Nov 2019, when photographer Rob Scott tried to use copyright law to protect Jeremy Corbyn from criticism.

This started when Jewish celebrity and campaigner against anti-semitism, Rachel Riley, wore a t-shirt attacking Jeremy Corbyn for his decades of support for anti-semitism and anti-semites. Tweet posted 19 Nov 2019.
It is a parody of a well-known 1984 photo of Corbyn getting arrested.

The photographer of the 1984 photo, Rob Scott, threatens legal action to protect the powerful politician Jeremy Corbyn, 24 Nov 2019.

Bloody hell. It's that picture again.

Ban this picture!
Protect powerful British politicians from criticism!