An Internet hub for moderates, centrists, and independents, with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, and right

« 2nd Amendment in the Spotlight

Grand Old Man of the New Journalism »

Here we go again: AP Files DMCA Takedowns Against Drudge Retort

Posted by JOE WINDISH, Technology Editor in At TMV.
Jun 13th, 2008 | Comments

UPDATE: AP’s Jim Kennedy emails:

The Associated Press encourages the engagement of bloggers — large and small — in the news conversation of the day… Bloggers are an indispensable part of the new ecosystem, but… There are many ways to inspire conversation about the news without misappropriating the content of original creators, whether they are the AP or fellow bloggers.

Full text here. Headline corrected for clarity (added “Retort”). Original post begins here…

Worth watching… CLOSELY!… Rogers Cadenhead:

I’m currently engaged in a legal disagreement with the Associated Press, which claims that Drudge Retort users linking to its stories are violating its copyright and committing “‘hot news’ misappropriation under New York state law.” An AP attorney filed six Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown requests this week demanding the removal of blog entries and another for a user comment.

The Retort is a community site comparable in function to Digg, Reddit and Mixx. The 8,500 users of the site contribute blog entries of their own authorship and links to interesting news articles on the web, which appear immediately on the site. None of the six entries challenged by AP, which include two that I posted myself, contains the full text of an AP story or anything close to it. They reproduce short excerpts of the articles — ranging in length from 33 to 79 words — and five of the six have a user-created headline. [...]

AP has filed copyright lawsuits against the VeriSign division Moreover last fall and another against the Florida company All Headline News this year.

I have no desire to be the third member of that club, but sharing links to news stories of interest has become an essential component of how millions of people read and evaluate the news today. When linking to articles, bloggers commonly include excerpts of the article for the purposes of criticism or discussion. Some AP member sites encourage this kind of reuse. Yahoo News, the source for two disputed stories, invites bloggers to use items from its RSS feeds. USA Today, the source for two others, includes a browser widget alongside articles that facilitates their submission to Digg, Mixx and other sites. Wade Duchene, the attorney who helped me win the domain name arbitration for Wargames.Com, says that what we’re doing on the Retort is the “absolute definition of fair use.”

The DMCA requires that the six blog entries and comment immediately be taken down, regardless of whether I think they’re fair use, but users have the option to file counter-notices to AP asserting their own copyright. Because the issue affects all bloggers, I’ve invited Keselman to explain AP’s position at more length. If she accepts I’ll post it in full here on Workbench and the Retort.

Assuming I have copyright permission, of course.

Some analysis from ReadWriteWeb:

There’s a certain social contract emerging where readers expect full RSS feeds to be published with the understanding that they will not engage in widespread republishing of the full feeds on other sites. In this case, the AP is not holding up its side of that social contract. Maybe it doesn’t want to be a participant in the society of new online media.

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

Silhouette

Ah yes. The Gestapo (GOP Big Media) wants to take away our rights to free speech and free flow of information in order to make informed decisions.

It's all part of their strategy to win this Fall when they know they're up against it.

1. Get Obama on the nomination. Use sexism, censure and misrepresentation of fact to accomplish said goal. Have many staff meetings and memos sent to anchors emphasizing same. Warn them of losing their jobs..

2. KEEP Obama on the nomination until after Democratic Convention (lest any superdelegates decide to defect to their feared enemy and likely-to-win nominee Hillary Clinton).

3. Make people think that Hillary Clinton has ENDED her campaign, when instead she is still in the ballgame and going to the Convention for a formal vote. (ie, get them to "give up" and not urge superdelegates to reconsider their positions.

4. (and here's the relevance to this thread) Shut down or stonewall any attempts to discuss freely strategies or information that would shed light on GOP-Big Media strategies that illustrate #1, # 2, & #3.

5. Wait patiently for the August deadline, still promote an image of Obama as electable until all the superdelegate votes are in. Then, at the stroke of midnight just after Obama is nominated officially, GO FOR HIS JUGULAR ON ALL MEDIA OUTLETS.

6. (Failsafe) If Obama still somehow maintains a threatening presence to a win this Fall, around the middle of October announce new and dire problems of war in the Middle East to galvanize anyone who might tip the vote by being just slightly on Obama's side of the fence from middle.

****

Suppression of free flow of information and speech is critical right now before the Democratic Convention. You'll see those efforts drop off after August.

There is a remedy. Contact past supporters of Obama (the GOP strategy) and see what just a few minutes each day on your PC can do to turn around the minds of superdelegates.

The Obama Expatriates: silhouette@suddenlink.net

ChrisWWW

Silhouette,
Are you for real?

Silhouette

Absolutely.

And as time goes on you will see how real that GOP strategy is. You do have to do your homework though on the connections between the GOP and Big Media. I'd steer you to some links but the AP might threaten to sue me for directing your attention to them. No reason why you can't use a search engine though..

Set your clocks for midnight after the Democratic Convention and then tune into any major media outlet for news on Obama. OK, now that I've blown it for them, you might have to wait up to a week for the same treatment of Hillary to befall Barack.

It will come as sure as I'm typing this. Real. Yes indeed. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Silhouette

"PYSOPS may be an unfamiliar term to you, yet it is of crucial importance. PSYOPS, or psychological operations, is a term used in military and government intelligence networks to "exploit human vulnerabilities in enemy governments, militaries and populations to pursue national and battlefield objectives," as quoted from the Washington Post article below (link provided). Stated more simply, PSYOPS is a means of intentionally deceiving targeted individuals and populations through a variety of sophisticated methods for specified objectives."

Source: http://www.wanttoknow.info/060123psyops

There's also stuff on domestic PSYOPS and even wikipedia has info on it. It's age-old. They just don't want to advertise it for obvious reasons...lol..

And not that our PSYOPS folks would EVER consider manipulating our own electoral process...you know...but if they considered another Clinton presidency as a threat to their objectives...well...

You get the picture.

I'll give you a classic example of this. I've seen a poster at another website devoted to discussing how Hillary got the short end of the stick. One poster named "too late" posts a line about how "she" is giving up and just not voting for anyone...or maybe McCain.

They want us to think it's "too late" to re-establish superdelegate dominance so we wont' write them to urge them to reconsider by the Convention in August. A strategic tool in psychological weaponry is infectious apathy. We are herd creatures and save a lot of energy by making decisions based on what we think is the trend of the time.

So if the idea of giving up can seem trendy, we won't notice we still have time to write our superdelegates and press for the candidate the GOP fears like nothing else.

And by the way, there's still time. P-L-E-N-T-Y of time.

pacatrue

Sillouette's closer than he or she thinks, but it's really the Masons behind it all.

Does anyone blame the Masons anymore or is that so 20th century?

ChrisWWW

pacatrue,
You're less old school than me. I still blame the Habsburgs.

Silhouette

Hardy har har..

PSYOPS is real. In fact it's somewhat of a yawn.

What is interesting is its application domestically. As far as I know it isn't illegal for g-men to employ its use domestically if they perceive something as a 'threat". Trouble is, who scans them as a potential 'threat'?

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

blog comments powered by Disqus