Copyright, Investigative Reporting Online... And Domino's Pizza Grossout
from the putting-it-all-together dept
People have been submitting various versions of the infamous Domino's Pizza employee grossout video of two employees doing... er... bad things to food, that's been the talk of the social media world all week, but there really didn't seem to be that much of real interest to talk about here -- or at least nothing that hadn't really been discussed to death elsewhere. As plenty of folks have pointed out, the whole event and Domino's reaction (who knows how successful it will eventually be) will certainly become a regular case study concerning "social media" and how companies can and should respond to certain events. On the whole, I think Domino's has made the best of a really awful situation which has no really good response.That said, there were two interesting side stories involved in all of this that haven't received much additional attention, but both seem to fit into themes we discuss here on a regular basis. The first is that, in the NY Times' coverage of the story, it notes that the woman involved, Kristy Hammonds, eventually used a copyright claim to get the video taken down from YouTube -- though, of course, they're now available in many more places. It seems like an odd sort of thing to try to pull down via a copyright claim. After all, she had put the video up on YouTube in the first place, even if she later came to regret it. And, by this point, the video is clearly part of a larger news story, so it's not clear if there's really a legitimate DMCA takedown to be issued over the video... Of course, in the end, it's really a meaningless gesture. The video is spread so far and wide that no takedown is going to make it disappear.
The second issue of relevance is the fact that it was folks online at the always excellent Consumerist website who were able to take the original video and track down the actual location of the Domino's franchise in question, and to alert Domino's corporate execs. While we keep hearing old school journalists whine about how no investigative reporting gets done without newspapers, this situation shows exactly how a group of motivated, interested folks, can do plenty of sleuthing and exposing of malfeasance themselves. That's not to say, of course, that this is "the model" for investigative journalism -- but to show that the whole space is changing these days, and it no longer requires a classically trained journalist in every situation. If an investigation needs to happen, there are ways to make it happen.
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Filed Under: copyright, investigative reporting, social media, videos
Companies: domino's
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Regular Case Study
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Re: Regular Case Study
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I am no private investigator...
Sounds like once again, corporate America has gotten this all wrong. From now on, I am only going to eat booger pizza from Pizza Hut.
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DMCA and Consumerist
Although I share your admiration for the Consumerist, I am not sure I would use their investigative reporting to show that we don't need the institutional media. The Consumerist is part of Consumers Union, after all, which DOES have very substantial resources to throw at reporting of important stories.
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Re: DMCA and Consumerist
Booya!
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Re: DMCA and Consumerist
Think of it as crowdsourcing some of the background work that journalists probably need and probably, dislike doing.
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BOOYA!
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Re: DMCA and Consumerist
A few months ago Consumerist posters performed a similar service by tracking down an iPhone thief who was using the stolen gadget to post pictures of himself on FaceBook or similar. It helped that the victim had set all outgoing emails up to copy to the phone. Consumerist posters had the thief's whereabouts, email, and pleas for mercy (ha - those pictures were embarrassing) nailed down within an hour, and the phone was returned a few days later.
Consumerist.com could possibly make some money selling scarce goods like capes and tights. ;D
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Re: Re: DMCA and Consumerist
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Re: DMCA and Consumerist
Two points: I didn't say we didn't need institutional media, I said that investigative reporting would be done in many different ways.
And... the investigative reporting was not done by the Consumerist blog, but by its readers...
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I have never even considered ordering from that disgusting chain ever again.
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Re:
I think from now on when I order pizza, before I pay the delivery driver, I am going to require that they eat a few bites. I will then ask him to stay on my porch for 18-37 minutes to see if he gets physically ill. If not, then I pay him, give him the standard $.45 tip, and send him on his way. If he does get sick, if it did not land directly on the pizza, I will scoop it off the floor and deposit onto the pizza, and then ask nicely that he return the pizza to his store and require that his manager eat it.
I am still piecing this plan together, sorry if it is a little rough.
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also, bobby mcdoogle, most times the delivery driver never sees the pizzas himself. they are usually made by someone in shop and already boxed for him to pick up and deliver quickly.
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Investigative Reporting
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The two side issues
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investigative reportin
Kenny and his older brother posted a video on Youtube depicting the abuse of their cat Dusty. The story was picked up by 4chan.org and Kenny was found within hours, on a volunteer basis.
I've got a few good friends in the journalism business, so i hate to see it go down like this, but they really have little by way of comparitive advantage when amateurs and volunteers can provide the same services.
I love this site, by the way. Keep it up!
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