The Party's Over

Following the Costas show on HBO, there seemed to be a "let cooler heads prevail" attitude among most bloggers and journalist. Outside of the kooks, we all looked at the situation as it is. A situation where bloggers and journalist could and should work together or at least understand that it is possible for the two sides to compliment each other.

Unfortunately, the memo didn't make it to the newspaper and news agency fat cats. Because now it seems we are back to square one with the AP going after bloggers that link to or quote AP stories. And now, in the mother of all dick moves, the Des Moines Register has threatened Black Heart Gold Pants to remove a video of the recent flooding in Iowa. Oops Pow makes fine points as to why this is such a dick move.

We shit you not. Consider the following facts:

1. The page on which
the video was originally posted provides code for blogs to embed said
video;
2. Nowhere on the page (or anywhere on the path from
DesMoinesRegister.com homepage to the destination page) is there listed any
terms of use, much less anything related to copyright infringement;
3. The
footage was being used to call for donations to charity in the wake of a local
natural disaster, in hopes that a visual representation would further stir the
emotions of viewers;
4. We linked back to the Register in the original
version of the article, well before the C&D letter arrived;
5. The
Register provided the embed code (Sorry, but it bears repeating).

Is this really where were going again? I mean, BHGP was trying to raise awareness to the suffering of his fellow Hawkeyes and, I'm sure, Cyclones. Linking back to the Register. There is a way to capitalize on all the internet traffic you get from a link, newspaper people. It will certainly be more lucrative than selling newspapers here in about 10 years when that form of media all but dies. Holding on to the past will get you stuck in the past if you don't watch it.

Quit being dicks!!! M'kay?

Update: Dicks Redacted!!!!1!

"This was a misunderstanding. I apologize on behalf of The Des Moines
Register. Simply an employee trying to do their job but not completely
understanding our new technology (we recently got embed code on our videos). I
take full responsibility for not making this clear to everyone on staff."