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24 Jul 2009 17:57

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Biz, Politics, Tech: AP’s news wrappers: Our brains just imploded, guys

ap0724
  • Wow, and we thought the Republicans’ health care graphic was bad. Basically, if we’re reading this right: The Associated Press needs to convince its members to agree to put digital wrappers on their content, wrappers that are a) invisible to consumers and b) can be tracked on the Internet. Um, OK. We don’t know if they know something about the ASCII type spec that we don’t, but what they’re describing sounds impossible to do with copy and pasting. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Jul 2009 01:00

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Biz, U.S.: The fight over Shepard Fairey’s Obama “Hope” illo gets messy

  • Plaintiffs have profited from the sales of Mr. Garcia’s copyrighted photograph image and Defendant AP seeks to reap some of the profit by claiming that it – and not Mr. Garcia – is the rightful owner of the copyright in the photograph.
  • A legal memorandum in support of photographer Manuel Garcia • Regarding Fairey v. Associated Press, i.e. the legal battle over the iconic Obama “Hope” poster. For those not in the loop, Shepard Fairey did an immaculate illustration based on a photo Garcia shot and AP ran on the wire. After it blew up, AP sued Fairey, who claimed fair use. Now, Garcia’s claiming neither of them have the right to claim that photo as theirs. We agree that Garcia has a claim over this, but point out that if you look on Getty Images, Obama has literally hundreds of photos taken of him each week (and in April of 2006 alone, he showed up on Getty 41 times) – a fact which we think dilutes both his and AP’s claims. He’s a famous person who gets photographed a lot. Fairey just grabbed a random photo. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Apr 2009 10:25

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Biz: This is why the Associated Press should not fight a copyright war

  • The AP claims copyright ownership in, and makes commercial use of, many photographs that consist almost entirely of copyrighted artwork of Fairey and other artists without permission.
  • Excerpt from “Fairey Answer to AP Counterclaims” • This court document from Shepard Fairey (the guy behind the iconic Obama poster and Obey Giant), among other things, attacks the Associated Press for a double standard. The AP is asking Fairey for compensation for using one of their photos to create his Obama artwork. Fairey then sued to have a court say his art is fair use. The document notes that the AP used his artwork and the artwork of others to create numerous photos which they then sell on their Web site. Double standard, anyone? • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

10 Apr 2009 20:47

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Biz, Politics, Tech: Huffington: Consumer habits have changed, AP.

  • Consumer habits have changed dramatically. People have gotten used to getting the news they want, when they want it, how they want it, and where they want it. And this change is here to stay.
  • Arianna Huffington • Talking about newspapers, the media and her role in the whole mess with The Huffington Post. She was on Charlie Rose this week debating the topic with Tom Curley of the Associated Press and said some really insightful things. Huffington knows what she’s talking about. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Apr 2009 23:52

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Biz, Politics: We’re using this site to protest the Associated Press tomorrow

  • We’re only using AP content tomorrow. Consider it civil disobedience. The Associated Press has made a lot of questionable decisions lately, what with that whole going against bloggers and Google News thing. But the latest takes the cake – they went after a radio station and AP affiliate for embedding a YouTube video on their site. (WTF?) AP put up the embed code on YouTube for people to link. So, as a protest, tomorrow, we’ll only post news from AP sites. We want them to get hits from us because they’re great. We hope the AP understands. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Apr 2009 10:28

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Biz, Tech: Google CEO Eric Schmidt thinks newspapers need more innovation

  • innovate Schmidt spoke at the the Newspaper Assn. of America conference yesterday, where he told his audience, “You can architect a structure where innovation is welcome, and where it’s taken advantage of.” (In other words, don’t lay people off!)
  • aggregate Schmidt also told the audience that the AP’s crazy plan to piss off their customers wasn’t going to work. Information doesn’t flow that way, so putting it back into the bottle isn’t going to work. He suggests embracing the aggregation instead. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

07 Apr 2009 01:29

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Biz, Politics: Dear Associated Press: You’re not the only game in town

  • The dispute The Associated Press, one of the most-quoted and most-highly-regarded wire services, wants to battle Web sites who use their content – even under commentary and fair use standards – head-on. “We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under some very misguided, unfounded legal theories,” said AP chair Dean Singleton, who we cited directly from an insightful AP article on the topic.
  • Our suggestion The wire service currently is still debating how to do this, but here’s how we think they should handle it. They should set up a satellite, AP-1, put it into orbit, implant mind chips into their audience and whenever someone even thinks about reading a newspaper article anywhere besides a newspaper, they’ll get a small, corrective electric shock. Sound idiotic, malformed and unrealistic? That’s because it is, just like this stupid idea.
  • We’ll just use ReutersIf this crazy idea that a bunch of out-of-touch newspaper publishers conjured up gains legs, it’s OK. There are lots of other places to gather content. And to blame this on blogs and Google News, this is beyond unwise; you could speed up the very road to irrelevancy that you’re trying to prevent with a move like this. Only people who don’t understand the Internet would suggest this idea. Good job screwing it up, old guys. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

24 Feb 2009 01:08

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Biz, U.S.: Dear Associated Press: This is a reeeeeallly stupid idea

  • Can I imagine content going behind a pay wall? Absolutely. And, yes, we are in conversations about that.
  • Tom Curley • The short-sighted, probably fat CEO of Associated Press who doesn’t see the big picture and wants to start charging for content. Good God, if the industry is thinking like this, maybe Marc Andreessen is onto something. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

30 Jan 2009 08:23

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U.S.: Did the FDA have advance notice of the peanut butter outbreak?

  • There was an early warning sign. Back in September, a shipment of peanuts from the same Georgia processing plant was returned to the U.S. from Canada after it was found to be contaminated with salmonella. The Food and Drug Administration logged this but never tested or followed up on it, according to the Associated Press. *forehead slap* source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jan 2009 15:36

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Sports: Wake Forest is on top of the college hoops world

  • 1st Wake Forest’s ranking in both of the major college basketball polls
  • 16-0 the Demon Deacons’ record; they’ve vanquished tough unbeaten foes (see: Clemson) for the honor source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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