Herbalife (HLF) does not want you to see or hear the evidence that the company is nothing more than a recruiting scheme. Audio and video footage was obtained of CEO Michael Johnson talking about how Herbalife is a recruiting company:

It’s the recruiting, meaning bringing new distributors into our company, which is the most vital part of our bloodstream. We bring new distributors in, we grow. It’s that simple. It’s that simple. And the company has built its whole reputation, its whole life, on recruiting.

But every time someone publishes this audio or video footage, Herbalife makes a bogus copyright claim and has it taken down.

I say that it is bogus, because posting the clip is most certainly fair use under U.S. laws:

the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

This is a short clip, being used for educational purposes and not commercial, and it does not do anything to the value of the overall video. It’s not copyright infringement to expose a shady company.

So here we go again with the clip:

[jwplayer config=”myplayer” file=”http://www.sequenceinc.com/videos/herbalife-ceo-michael-johnson-on-recruiting.flv” image=”http://www.sequenceinc.com/images/videos/michael-johnson-herbalife-recruiting.jpg”]

Download a copy of the video here!