More copyright complaints

Free Republic | April 8, 2004 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

As most of you are aware, we've recently received several copyright complaints. In the last few weeks, we've received complaints from the SJ Mercury News, Independent (UK), SF Chronicle and The Boston Globe. Just a couple days ago the Post-Gazette send a cease and desist notice and yesterday I heard from the Tribune-Review.

Tonight, I got a call from Amy and there were two more registered letters at our PO Box. The McClatchy News (Sacramento Bee) and USAToday are now added to the list of publications that have complained about copyright violations.

Well, folks, the handwriting is on the wall. The complaints are now coming in faster than I can respond to them. John is currently in the process of writing programs to search out and automatically excerpt all existing threads from these sources.

I think we're gonna have to go to excerpt and link for all news sources very soon unless we have written permission on file.

[weegee]

I think that an automatic excerpt with a link to the paper would be a sensable way to go. Then the buzzards will have to find something else to gripe about.

Nope. Then they'd push even harder. They'd seek no excerpting (some sites already demand this).

Free speech and fair use do not mean a thing to the lying liars on the left.

[weegee]

After "no excerpts" would be no "deep linking" (you would not be permitted to link to the article, you could only link to the top level homepage). Some websites have tried to fight for this against other sites (I don't know that any have upheld their position in the courts).

[weegee]

Because that's the way ASCAP et al. bribed Congress to write the rules. They're not stupid. They understand that if they charged bands to cover other people's tunes, bands wouldn't be able to afford to do so and thus would either write their own music or go out of business. So they write laws to exempt the musicians from paying for music while makng the venue owners (the deeper pockets) pay.

What's more, in the days of vaudeville, songwriters got their money selling sheet music (50 cents a booklet, big money back 100 years ago). They encouraged performers to sing their songs; they would bribe a shill to sing along from the audience or down the street at the local pub all to convince the audience, potential customers, that the song was "popular" and that other people were already singing it.

When recorded songs first came along, there was no money paid to the songwriter (certainly no royalty payment). When radio came along, there was no royalty payment for playing records. Heck, record companies gave the radio stations plenty of free records to encourage them to play their songs. Live musicians complained that they were being forced out of work.

At every step of the game, the Supreme Court said that this was all fair use. Every time, the industry came back to fight to change copyright law.

This continues to today. We have the "best" government money can buy. The founding fathers would not be happy.

[weegee]

This article from Al Franken is not excerpted nor do I see any disclaimer that it was used with permission nor do I even see a link to the source (copyright owner).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x44091

[John Robinson]

I think that FR may need to re-evaluate the policy of permitting newbies to initiate threads. That DUh link recommends that trolls post threads deliberately to initiate copyright lawsuits against FR.

There is nothing stopping a person with that intent from posting full text in a reply then siccing the legal department. In most threads, such an insidious comment would likely keep unnoticed without attribution.

However, I don't believe this will be a problem if an earnest attempt is made to keep the site free of impermissible full text. Legal battles are costly. More so, such antics would land the troll himself in hot water with foul play being suspect.

Wishful thinking on their part.

[weegee]

And, if you are not a member of BMI or ASCAP (or that other one, SEASAC or whatever) then no one is collecting royalties for you - it becomes your own task if you choose not to join. In all reality there is no reason to NOT join one - Writer Memberships are usually free, I believe (but the real bucks are in publishing)...

The artists who do not join ASCAP and BMI are not the ones complaining that the bar is ripping them off by playing their albums. These artists ARE being ripped off by ASCAP and BMI however when they collect fees for songs that ARE NOT THEIRS.

If a bar chooses to play only artists and songs that are not covered by ASCAP and BMI, those companies have no reason to send in their muscle toughs to shake down a bar for "compliance" licensing.

[BOBWADE]

Even a broken clock is right twice per day. HEHE

[weegee]

When I do register on some site that requires demograpic information, I register as a 14 year old girl.

You should register as a pre-teen (under 13) because the website is then prohibited from doing different things to your system (I think tracking cookies and the like).

When I sign in to read WashingtonPost online, I use the "example" values (I think that is a woman born in 1965 in a DC zipcode...).

I think that caution has to be exercised in "sharing" an account (even a free one) because of provisions of the enrollment agreement (even if signup is free).

[bk1000]

Didn't read all 300 replies, so my apology if repetitive. I think this is great! It simply means that FR has gotten so big and so popular! Much like when you make a copy of your own CD nobody cares, but make 1000 and all of a sudden, somebody cares.

That is the bright side. The other possibility is that some e-mail the originators of the articles saying,'I read yer story posted on FR and I think...'

[mhking]

I've seen some people saying that they were going out of their way to contact news organizations to get them to go after FR -- their way of trying to counteract and perhaps try to eliminate FR as a "viable" organization. Simply pathetic if you ask me.

[prairiebreeze]

Jim, are the other news forums (and I use that description loosely in many cases) being held to the same standard? Is it just FR?

thanks,Prairie

[weegee]

I don't think it's going to buy him what he really wants though --

IF Americans can find out more about John Kerry the man and John Kerry the candidate (let alone his VP choice, the leading Democrat known as "The Unknown Democrat"), he doesn't stand a chance at winning this election:

(Iraq) What Would Kerry Do As President? Senator Doesn't Always Answer

According to a CNN transcript, anchor Judy Woodruff asked Kerry, "What exactly -- right now -- would you do differently?"

Kerry: "Right now, what I would do differently is, I mean, look, I'm not the president, and I didn't create this mess so I don't want to acknowledge a mistake that I haven't made.

How do we know these things? Because one media source quoted the transcript (not paraphrase) of another media source and the entire text was circulated for comment at FR.

If Big Media won't linger on the lack of a response from this man who "would be" President, then the alternate media must take up the slack.

[mhking]

Run the article through an ebonics translator, then post the new text.

Not funny.

[auboy]

"over the target" bump!

[weegee]

I've seen some people saying that they were going out of their way to contact news organizations to get them to go after FR -- their way of trying to counteract and perhaps try to eliminate FR as a "viable" organization. Simply pathetic if you ask me.

When they can't win an argument based on fact or reasoned arguments, they can only resort to dirty tricks to supress the opposition.

[AppyPappy]

search out and automatically excerpt all existing threads from these sources.

If I remember correctly, they only have to be taken out of the public eye. You can keep the full text as long as it is not available to the public. Do you see what I mean?

[sport]

I believe that this is a back door operation instigated by the democrats [socialists]to , if they cannot destroy, at least neutralize Free Republic.

They [democrats a/k/a socialists and communists] know that Free Republic was a [I would say the] major factor that prevented al gore from stealing the '00 election.

The democrats [socialists and communists] know that if they are to be successful that they must deal with Free Republic.

They rather destroy it but will settle,for now, with neutralizing it. But make no mistake, should john kerry be elected[and due to the stupidity of the average American voter and the democrats ability to create votes] unfortunately, this is a distinct possibility, he will destroy Free Republic.

This is only the opening salvo in the campaign.

Jim, please be vigilant and not give them any ammunition to use against you [us].

The above is only my opinion.

[Cold Heat]

I think we're gonna have to go to excerpt and link for all news sources very soon unless we have written permission on file.

Looks like a good idea, taking into account the changes regarding the use of the web. Would I be wrong if I assumed that much of this is due to the fact that many of these web sites are charging a fee, or soon will for access?

At first, I was a bit angry or annoyed about this situation, I still am, but I note that so many of these sites are now charging a subscription fee.

I do not know that people will pay for all things like news, but they can sure try......:-(

I am not going back to a printed newspaper however. The handwriting is on the wall for those folks. They are soon going to be extinct. This extinction will cause some changes in how the liberal excrement is disseminated.

I suspect that this is why the pressure is building for the liberals to own their very own cable channel.

We, as Conservatives, must/should be getting ahead of that game and establish one of our own!.IMHO.

[AppyPappy]

What if we created a new table called full_article, wrote a perl script to move the full text to the table and then provided a link to the full text in the excerpt. The mods would have the only access to the full text in case there was a discrepancy. This is no different from having a pile of newspapers in the basement.

[weegee]

Is this what you mean:

This text is out of sight!

^^^^^ See Above ^^^^^