Associated Press Chairman Signs Up For Righthaven, Begins Suing Bloggers
from the this-won't-end-well dept
Well, well, well. Remember back when the Associated Press threatened bloggers for quoting snippets of AP articles? Is the organization considering dipping its toes in the Righthaven waters? The Las Vegas Sun reports that Righthaven has signed up Media News as a client and has sued a blogger on behalf of the Denver Post, after the blogger apparently reposted a Denver Post column by Mike Rosen (with a link and credit). This is interesting for a few different reasons. First, it was just a few weeks ago that the Denver Post published a cryptic “reminder” about copyright that had a bunch of people scratching their heads. I had thought about mentioning it at the time, but it seemed so utterly lacking in context, that there wasn’t much to say. I guess the Righthaven lawsuit provides context.
But, much more interesting is the Associated Press angle. You see, the CEO of MediaNews is one Dean Singleton. The same Dean Singleton is also the chairman of the board of… (you guessed it!) the Associated Press. He’s also been their leading champion for the AP’s backwards-looking bunker “lock everything up” mentality and its “DRM the news” strategy. So, if he’s willing to partner with Righthaven and transfer copyrights to that company in exchange for suing bloggers, should we consider this a warning shot that the AP will be next? I’m sure that Righthaven would love that, though lately Righthaven’s legal strategy hasn’t looked so strong.
Filed Under: bloggers, copyright, dean singleton, denver post
Companies: associated press, medianews, righthaven
Comments on “Associated Press Chairman Signs Up For Righthaven, Begins Suing Bloggers”
Just another foolish group that thinks their govt. granted monopoly actually means anything in today’s world, nothing to see here.
Re: Re:
Yeah you are right nothing to see here, until they start shutting down entire blogging sites because one person posted 12 words from an AP article in an obscure blog with 20 readers.
Re: Re:
Gotta love feature creep …
That is Dinky Singleton to you.
Given to him by Westword about 6 years ago.
Turnabout is fair play
The AP very often steals,, er I mean quotes bloggers. Why don’t we just start sueing them back? Maybe bloggers should start signing up with RightHaven too.
Sheesh
Imagine if every source the AP quotes charged them for over 5 words. If the AP gets a blurb from you, make sure you get a check from them.
Another DMCA Agent Reminder?
It’s probably also time to give another reminder about how important it is to register a DMCA agent so you have some protections:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101028/15533611640/damn-good-reminder-if-you-run-a-blog-register-for-dmca-protections.shtml
"Associated Press Chairman Signs Up For Righthaven, Begins Suing Bloggers"
It’s easier to “borrow” from AP’s partners anywayz. ;P
Dean Singleton is an interesting creature. The first part of his media career was spent buying big metro dailies and then mismanaging right out of business. Now he is chairing the AP, amongst other things.
While, on the one hand, Singleton always managed to land on his feet after every business failure he is involved in; on the other hand, his presence is the kiss of death for every venture he is involved in. If Singleton is involved it is only a matter of time before things go badly for him and his associates.
This is amazing.
This is amazing. People far and wide email and blog news articles in full or in part.
The stupidest thing about suing a blogger is that 1) this blogger gave credit; and 2) the blogger was actually giving free publicity to the news source as well as to the writer.
Suing over this is so counterproductive.
COULD THIS APPLY TO EMBEDS OF VIDEOS ALSO?
OOOH I HAVE A REAL SERIOUS QUESTION HERE:
Could this same idea be applied to embeds of videos off youtube? “Everyone” embeds videos off youtube onto their blogs, myspace, or links to them on Facebook. Could this be considered copyright infringement?
MANY NEWS STATIONS have videos on youtube! WHat if those are embedded or linked on blogs, myspace, etc.
This whole thing opens up a can of worms. Seriously, though — most blogs do not make any money and intimidating the writers is so morally and ethically wrong.
Dean Singleton, mob plant
Dean Singleton is reportedly “good friends” with real estate developer Larry Mizel, one of the chief reasons Silverado Savings & Loan went down. Mizel got a bunch of money from Silverado which he never paid back. He has used it to install all public officials in Colorado who wield any power whatsoever.
Several of the newspapers Singleton bought up were doing exposes of the savings & loan crisis, including Silverado. Whoops! That was the end of THOSE investigations! And the end of those reporters’ jobs, too.
The funniest thing about this–if there is a funny side to this very serious campaign the man and his cronies have of stamping out real news wherever it is to be found–is that there is no real news to be found in the Denver Post itself. There’s been a news blackout in Denver for a long, long time. The Post is nothing but ads, celebrity gossip, doggie news, obituaries which take up lots more space than they used to–and don’t forget the FOUR pages of comics, with FOUR crossword puzzles. Anything to keep thinking people tied up with silly diversions so they have less time to ferret out and think about the real news in this country, which is the massive takeover and looting of all our institutions by the finance capitalists, which has been going on for about 20 years now.
Boy Singleton cares nothing for the First Amendment. His mission is to SHUT DOWN NEWS GATHERING altogether.
Forgot something
I forgot, in my earlier comment, to mention that Media News is 80% owned by Bank of America.
No question that Singleton’s job is to protect the bankers, the real estate developers, the insurers–in short, the robber barons.