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ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO REPRINT
Wayne Sanderson, publisher of The Daily Briefing, threatened legal action against me last week after I pointed out that his for-profit site was lifting columns from the New York Times. In total, I think Wayne has tried this move on me four times; an unusual tactic for a claimed free-speech advocate. His emails—demanding that I apologise and retract, etc—usually warn that “the matter is now in the hands of my lawyers” or something similar, but no subsequent legal letter ever arrives.
At least Chris Sheil had the required level of craziness to actually contact a legal firm and have them send a ridiculous letter after I’d called him out on his Wesley Clark crush. (I must find that letter; been meaning to get it framed.) Anyway, Wayne declined to duplicate any NYT columns in the wake of that post. Possibly he’d realised he was in breach of copyright, or maybe he was simply distracted by the whole Webdiary meltdown. In any case, by Friday Wayne had recovered to the point he felt able to run 404 words from a David Brooks NYT column—cutting about 250 words from the original piece, which is behind an NYT subscriber barrier.
One of Wayne’s defences, in his absurd legalish emails, was that other rogue sites also reproduce subscriber-only NYT pieces. Which is true, although those other sites don’t run a $77 per year email alert business based in part on the republication of NYT columns. Scroll though this list of Daily Briefing posts and you’ll find some 16 items sourced from the New York Times, cut-and-pasted at The Daily Briefing, and subsequently deleted.
It doesn’t particularly matter that the NYT’s TimesSelect policy is goofy, or that TimesSelect is actually less expensive than Wayne’s weird lift-and-profit service. What’s important here is that Wayne is dragging down online media by doing something that is plainly wrong. The NYT can offer its material in any way it sees fit: available to all; to NYT subscribers; or only to gophers with Latin degrees and a minimum of two Grand Slam tennis titles. You don’t need to be a TimesSelect subscriber to read this TimesSelect Q & A:
Q: Will I be able to e-mail a TimesSelect article to a non-subscriber?
A: You can e-mail TimesSelect links with brief summaries to anyone but only TimesSelect subscribers will be able to read the full article.
Nearly two-thirds of a column isn’t a “brief summary”. Something of Wayne’s attitude may be understood by this:
Maureen Dowd fans can give thanks to Truthout.com for not having to pay ...
Wayne can also give thanks—for being able to link to Truthout.com’s Dowd reprints, which add value to his subscriber service without him shelling out a cent.
Let’s see if this provokes a fifth legal threat.
UPDATE. Sanderson has deleted the Brooks column.
UPDATE II. Some helpful guidelines for Wayne:
2.1 The contents of the NYTimes.com Internet service are intended for your personal, noncommercial use. All materials published on NYTimes.com (including, but not limited to news articles, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips and video clips, also known as the “Content”) are protected by copyright, and owned or controlled by The New York Times Company, NYTD, NYTimes.com, or the party credited as the provider of the Content. You shall abide by all additional copyright notices, information, or restrictions contained in any Content accessed through the Service.
2.2 The Service and its Contents are protected by copyright pursuant to U.S. and international copyright laws. You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce (except as provided in Section 2.3 of this Agreement), create new works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the Content or the Service (including software) in whole or in part.
2.3 You may download or copy the Content and other downloadable items displayed on the Service for personal use only, provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained therein. Copying or storing of any Content for other than personal use is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from The New York Times Rights and Permissions Department, or the copyright holder identified in the copyright notice contained in the Content.
We at the Home of the Oafish Infant™ are pleased to assist in all your legal and publishing needs.
Bugger Wayne, Tim. You’re the one who’s right here.
It would be understandable, I suppose, to decry the absence of this type of service somewhat in the way that many of us were sad about the downfall of Napster - no more music for free - though legally, the composers of said music were in the right in that situation. But to actually charge for the stuff you’re stealing, instead of giving it away for free - that takes a whole new level of balls.
Thrillseeker? Sounds like a clueless git to me.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 12 10 at 02:12 PM • permalinkSo, basically, he’s charging 77 bucks for edited material that TimeSelect subscribers can get in toto for 50 bucks?
Aside from the fact that he’s a plagistic little weasel, it’s almost worth leaving him in business to mess with people as stupid as his customers.
And now we know where Margo spent the 44 grand.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 10 at 02:20 PM • permalinkAh, the cartooney threat! Much beloved of the denizens of nanae.
Many was the time some trailer-park spammer decided that an admin was supressing his frea speach and causing a tortillous interference with his bizness. The spammer quickly lets the rogue admin know that his crack firm of cartooneys is on the case! But often the cartooneys were so shy and retiring that they couldn’t manage to send out an actual letter on their legal letterhead, and had to rely on their client emailing the threat from a Hotmail address.
Bonus points if you can get the guy to invoke inappropriate authorities: Interpol, the FBI (for someone not in the US), UNESCO, the Boy Scouts, etc. Extra bonus points for death threats!
Damnit Ross, you took the words right off my keyboard.
=^D
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 12 10 at 04:07 PM • permalinkTim, I’m surprised he hasn’t asked you outside to settle things the old fashioned way.
Big advocate of free speech is old Wayne, never publishes critiques of his TDB that I’ve given him and happy to partake in “posts overboard”.
Hopefully Wayne is sharing his strategy with Thom Lyons over at Whacking Day and we can be blessed with some ongoing entertainment to fill the Margo void.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 12 10 at 05:53 PM • permalinkWayne Sanderson School of Online Journalism online tutorial.
TDB 101:
Drag mouse over pre-written text to Select
Ctrl-C
Alt Tab to The Daily Briefing
Ctrl-V
Add bold tags or change font if feeling energetic.
Upload content for subscribers.
$$$$Kaching, Kaching$$$$All subsequent lessons refer Lesson TDB 101.
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 12 10 at 06:57 PM • permalinkCliif S. — You don;t want to provoke him to the point he brings in UNICEF. Those Belgian Smurf Bombers are deadly…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 10 at 07:14 PM • permalinkAhh, Wayne Sanderson. The man was single-handedly responsible for wasting thousands of Queensland taxpayers’ dollars in the 1990s.
While working at The Courier Mail, which ran his ravings largely unchecked, his favourite trick was to demand FOI documents from the outer reaches of the state.
After an officer had spent several days finding the documents and having them flown to Brisbane, Wayne wouldn’t show up when he said he would and then would wait several weeks before demanding to see them, by which time the documents had been flown back to their destination.
During which time he had more time to concoct more venomous column inches.
That man is contemptible.
How about we put the NYT in touch with Mr Sanderson?
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 12 10 at 08:06 PM • permalinkO/T: UN climate conference in Montreal closes with conference members agreeing to - hold more talks! Truly a newsworthy item for the ages, or as ABC News (the American version) calls it: “U.N. Climate Talks End With Pivotal Deal”
Additional you-can’t-make-this-up moment in the article: Conference president and Canadian environment minister Stephane Dion says, “What we have achieved is no less than a map for the future, the Montreal Action Plan.” Also from Dion: “I would prefer to have the United States in Kyoto.” Oh, I’m sure you would, buddy.
And people wonder why we’re not taking these guys seriously.
This is similar to the issues (and never eventuating legal threats) that Tex at Whacking Day is getting from Thom Lyons, ex-Greens candidate and certifiable nutjob (or as Tex put it so affectionately, a “pole-smoking cumstain”.
Tex is stirring a lot harder too and I’ve even helped a bit with some Photoshoppery.
Hmm, yes, indeed, and your confirmation of this agreed fact is ...
(pĭ-tärd’) pronunciation
n.1. A small bell-shaped bomb used to breach a gate or wall.
2. A loud firecracker.[French pétard, from Old French, from peter, to break wind, from pet, a breaking of wind, from Latin pēditum, from neuter past participle of pēdere, to break wind.]
WORD HISTORY The French used pétard, “a loud discharge of intestinal gas,” for a kind of infernal engine for blasting through the gates of a city. “To be hoist by one’s own petard,” a now proverbial phrase apparently originating with Shakespeare’s Hamlet (around 1604) not long after the word entered English (around 1598), means “to blow oneself up with one’s own bomb, be undone by one’s own devices.” The French noun pet, “fart,” developed regularly from the Latin noun pēditum, from the Indo-European root *pezd–, “fart.”
There’s a weapon of this period of which few remember anything but its name—the petard. It had little to recommend it. In essence it was an iron bucket which was filled with gunpowder and hung on the gate of a stronghold to explode there and blow in the gate. Presumably the “gunner” had to drive his own nail to hang it on and bring along his own courage for the job.
From The Swiss Family Robinson:
Without explaining my purpose, I got a large cast-iron mortar, filled it with gunpowder, secured a block of oak to the top, through which I pierced a hole for the insertion of the match, and this great petard I so placed, that when it exploded, it should blow out the side of the vessel next which the pinnace lay. Then securing it with chains, that the recoil might do no damage, I told the boys I was going ashore earlier than usual, and calmly desired them to get into the boat. Then lighting a match I had prepared, and which would burn some time before reaching the powder, I hastened after them with a beating heart, and we made for the land.
Okay, I also came up with this:
A petard was a 19th Century animal trap, consisting of a rope and a bent branch that caught the desired beast by one leg as it stepped into a loop in the rope and pulled it up into the air.
That’s probably what Ioxymoron was referring to.
#26 Dan Lewis
Tex is stirring a lot harder too and I’ve even helped a bit with some Photoshoppery.
You did the “smiley-frowny Thom” animation? I’ve always thought that was a little bit disturbing…
:^/
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2005 12 11 at 02:15 AM • permalink25 Onya, Deo - I just sent the link to the General Manager of the NYT.
Oooh, that felt gooooood!!!!
—Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 12 11 at 02:42 AM • permalinkIt’s going to make a whopping-fun thread here at TB when the NYT’s legal moles finally get off their duffs and shoot some paper at Mr Sanderson… What other outcome is possible?
Hoisted by his own bomb-fart, he’ll be…
Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 12 11 at 02:53 AM • permalinkDan — Tex is being unfair to Thom. He was too in the photo field in the service. He sold picture postcards in the canteen…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 11 at 12:59 PM • permalinkJust to settle what is essentially a pointless argument:
petard: an explosive device formerly used to break down doors, walls, etc.
hoist with (or by) one’s own petard: destroyed by the very thing with which one meant to destroy others.
This is from the dead-tree Webster’s which is ever by my side, since I, who could once spell nearly every word in the dictionary (Oxford’s or otherwise), have been done in over the years by a relentless advance in technology and a plethora of senior moments.
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