Is C-SPAN video footage not public domain?

[KyuzoGator]

Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network.

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-SPAN

Brian Lamb, C-SPAN's chairman and CEO, conceived of C-SPAN while working at the Cablevision company. It was created as a cable-industry financed, non-profit network for televising sessions of the U.S. Congress. It receives no funding from any government source, has no contract with the government, and does not sell sponsorships or advertising. It strives for neutrality and a lack of bias in its public affairs coverage.
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Non-profit, no advertising, no sponsorships, no government funding.

I'm wondering what the justification for yanking the YouTube links to the Colbert video was. There is copyrighted material ALL OVER that website that has been there for months.

Obviously a Freeper-type complained and got the vids pulled. It seems to me that we have a strong argument for the Colbert footage to be public domain and subject to Fair Use.

[RoyGBiv]

1. As I keep saying ...

A lot of the stuff that is "all over" that website is copyrighted and technically could be pulled due to copyright infringment. Most of it isn't because no one complains, sort of an unspoken agreement to allow brief snippets in part because it provides free advertising to the networks involved.

But, the broadcasts are copyrighted by the National Cable Satellite Corporation.

The "copyleft" (note the avatar) would seem to work perfectly for such institutions as C-SPAN, but the corporation that controls it has no interest in it because they want to maintain control over distribution.

[demobabe]

2. CSPAN resells its footage

That's part of their funding for the video they shoot.

Non-profit doesn't mean people don't get paid to do a job. It's just a tax status that means their books have to be zero at the end of the year for the non-profit tax status.