Legal Jihad
America’s largest news agency has sent the lawyers after a blogger, who happens to be a long-time critic, on fair use.
Plucky little Snapped Shot must have really touched a nerve. This could make an interesting case, if Brian gets some good representation and takes it into discovery. Only seems fair to be able to establish how deep the bias and incompetence is. The strategy would appear to be deep-pocket intimidation, to make annoying, miniscule, insignificant nuisances just go away. But even if that works, it could get awkward if and when the nation’s prominent newspapers start writing the David and Goliath/Bigfoot stories, and rehashing all the bias and incompetence claims. Interesting also to see where the various press freedom/free speech advocacy groups fall. Could be a challenge to those with bias problems.
The mockery starts here. And here.
Thoughts on the chilling implications here.
Irony, lifted from a rival news agency and blogged here. Ironic juxtaposition, with someone’s purloined art, here.
Helpful legal resources, here. Legal ruminations, here. Legal assistance shoutout, here.
Disgust and disparagement, here and here.
Wiki fair-use rundown here.
Insistence this is just business, here.
Meanwhile, in other anti-blogness …
Welcome, Instapundit, Steynites, etal, get yer freedom of speech here, while it lasts.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:52 am on Sunday, March 2, 2008
9 Responses to “Legal Jihad”
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March 2nd, 2008 at 10:33 am
If the point of this lawsuit was to shut down criticism of the AP, then they have failed. I had never even heard of this site before Jules posted this here. All this does is sink AP’s reputation even further than the poor writing, obvious agenda reporting, and fake photographs already had. Good work, AP! You suck, and more people know it than ever!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Good PR work, AP. You guys are masters. [/sarc]
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
A more accurate description of this is, “AP sues blogger who steals AP photographs and posts them on his site.”
Fair use? Right. The guy doesn’t link to photos. He steals them. Regularly.
Snapped Snot guy is a photo thief, nothing more. “Plucky little Snapped Shot,” indeed.
Notice when he’s got no pirated photos to post on his site, there’s nothin’ there.
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Fair use? Right. The guy doesn’t link to photos. He steals them. Regularly.
How does one steal photos from a news source whose work is disseminated widely everyday?
March 2nd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
# C.J. Burch Says:
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
A more accurate description of this is, “AP sues blogger who steals AP photographs and posts them on his site.”
Fair use? Right. The guy doesn’t link to photos. He steals them. Regularly.
Snapped Snot guy is a photo thief, nothing more. “Plucky little Snapped Shot,” indeed.
Notice when he’s got no pirated photos to post on his site, there’s nothin’ there.
Me thinks CJ Burch needs a crash course in Fair Use doctrine.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:27 pm
C’mon - easily fair use.
- The purpose of the use is aimed specifically at the purpose of the work - i.e., AP tries to pass off faked, altered, unrepresentative photos as their own little contribution to bending world opinion to support their philosophies, and SS points out how this is so.
- the nature of the copyrighted work is a photograph, disseminated to the world to support a story, or to simply show us “what’s happening.” If AP is intentionally showing us a false light, SS’s use is dead-on allowable.
- SS shows the entire photo - but that’s not the point. This provision is aimed at the guy who prints, not a quote or a selection of a book or article, but the entire book or article. In order to critique the false light being presented by a photo, SS must show the entire photo.
- finally, critique of the accuracy and the honesty of the AP photo will, if successful, have a negative effect on the market value of the photo, but this factor is always going to lose out if AP has to argue that they have a right to disseminate false stories and false impressions with their photos.
He needs someone with good working experience with, and knowledge of, his state’s version of the anti-”Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” statute version. Frankly, it’s easy and cheap to plead that as a counterclaim almost immediately.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Will this be extended to words? That is, if I catch some publication in an error, can I not quote the error? Seems like that’s the next step, doesn’t it?
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:56 pm
[...] AP photos are too frequently doctored or otherwise inaccurate depictions of the news, it seems that some folks are suggesting an interesting legal strategy to help defend Snapped Shot’s criticism. The [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 12:38 am
[...] As someone who spends a fair amount of time at work trying to pump life back into stories the AP has tortured and maimed, I appreciated this one. OK, hopefully that’s enough fair-use criticism so I don’t get one of those nasty letters in the mail. [...]