Brian Ledbetter’s SnappedShot was an old favorite blog of mine. The concept was essentially ferociously biting commentary on hopelessly biased press photographs. It worked well and got a lot of traffic for all Brian’s trouble too (as I found out when he linked to me when I was over at postpolitical). But apparently the AP wasn’t as fond of his posting its images on the site. Consequently Brian’s taken the site down ahead of a C&D from the AP’s legal team. I can understand the AP’s complaint and I’m sure Brian can too. It’s a damned pity all the same and one hopes he merely signs up for a news photo subscription service.
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It’s “fair use” I think. I sent Brian an email explaining that.
Fair use? Perhaps, but won’t it cost him a lot of dough to defend himself against deep pockets AP?
Though I’m not a lawyer, this seems almost certainly under “fair use”. I believe companies frequently use strongly worded “cease and desist” orders to shut up people who irritate them and likely will not have the means to defend themselves. There are foundations that help defend against this kind of thing, but I don’t know them personally.
See the wikipedia article, whose relevant portion read:
“Notwithstanding the provisions of sections § 106 and § 106A, 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…”
talk radio critiques audio from competitors and ‘news’ worthy people everyday. hang in there.
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