Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign created quite a stir with an anti-Rick Perry ad, pegged to his poor performances in televised debates, that’s been described as “brutal” and “a symphony of Gump-ishness.” The ad acquired Faces of Death-style notoriety when the Romney campaign pulled it from YouTube, later explaining that it had done so at CNN’s request.

Given the traditional reliance of campaign ads on debate footage, we contacted CNN to confirm, and clarify, the Romney campaign’s claims about why the ad was pulled.

It is a pet peeve of mine when people throw around arguments citing “Fair Use” and yet fail to actually explain what a fair use argument actually is. So it was mostly for that reason that I was annoyed by Jeff Bercovici’s misleading, poorly-reasoned post yesterday on AOL’s Daily Finance. So let’s start over again and talk about what “Fair Use” – as defined by U.S. Code § 107, which actually governs the matter.

Is CBS kidding? Brian Stelter at the NYT reports that they’ve spent the weekend having “unauthorized copies” removed from YouTube. First of all, videos of Letterman’s mea culpa don’t need to be authorized, they’re news, according to our understanding of Fair Use rules. Second — and really the point here — that toothpaste is not going back in the tube. This story is out. Oh and also: still on YouTube.