An online civil liberties group has sued self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller for using "baseless copyright claims" to silence critics who question his paranormal powers.
The suit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation came after Geller, the Israeli television star who claims to bend spoons by mental forces, sued critic Brian Sapient in federal court on Monday after Sapient published an excerpt of copyrighted material on the video-sharing site, YouTube.
Sapient, who belongs to the National Response Squad - a group dedicated to debunking what it calls irrational beliefs - posted a 13-minute video that included a 3-second excerpt from the 1993 Public Television Service NOVA program "Secrets of the Psychics." In the program, magician James Randi says Geller's spoon-bending feats were simple tricks. YouTube, owned by Mountain View-based Google Inc., took down the video after Geller complained.
"I am amazed by Sapient's lack of regard for property rights of others," Geller, 60, said in a statement.
