When I was little, I remember seeing Uri Geller on TV, bending spoons and starting old watches with the power of his mind! I was working at Borders Books & Music when the most awesome thing I ever saw on remainder (aka bargain) appeared: A Uri Geller mind power kit. I didn’t have the money to buy one, and by the time I did, they were gone forever.
I also remember seeing Uri on Johnny Carson, along side famed psychic debunker The Amazing James Randi. The story is quite classic: Geller is invited to appear and perform, Randi provides the spoons and watches to make sure no previous tom foolery occurred with them, and mysteriously Geller is unable to perform, claiming that Randi’s negative energy is blocking his powers.
This was all just about a million years ago, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, that which was old becomes new again. It seems that a clip of James Randi debunking Geller showed up on Youtube, as all things tend to do. But what really irked Geller was a video of him on an Israeli show actually caught cheating. More than likely Geller picked it up psychically (he was way ahead of Apple… streaming Youtube to your TV? He streams it directly to his MIND!). Geller became angry and used technology, invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to force Youtube to take the video down, which they did. The problem is though, the clips of Geller in the piece fall under “fair use”, and as a DMCA takedown has some legal binding, Geller broke the law in using it!
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is filing suit against Geller, who neither owned the video in question or had the right to use legal means to remove it. Perhaps he’ll enjoy the sweet taste of his own lawsuity medicine.
Geller’s cheating video here.
The moment he cheats here.
Watch The Amazing Randi video, learn a little about psychic trickery, and listen to the deafening silence during Geller’s appearance on The Tonight show here.
CNET article on the matter by Declan McCullagh here.
More on The Amazing Randi at the James Randi Educational Foundation here.
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