NBC, Defender Of All Things Copyright, Copies Blogger's Post Without Permission; Removes Her Name When She Complains
from the those-poor-corn-farmers dept
We'd love to get an explanation from NBC Universal General Counsel Rick Cotton on the following story. Cotton, of course, is the very, very, very strong defender of copyrights for NBC Universal. He was, of course, the main source for the propaganda "oh no piracy is killing the movie business" segment on 60 Minutes, and as we all know, he's been quite concerned about the poor, poor (yet, heavily subsidized) corn farmers hurt by "piracy." He's come out as a supporter of having ISPs spy on users to block the transmission of copyright works (which should be useful once Comcast takes over). And, finally he's also been involved in NBC's attempt to make it more difficult for anyone to watch the Olympics online, even though the evidence showed that the people who watched Olympics content online were more likely to then watch it on TV (ads and all) as well.So, with all that, you'd have to imagine that if he found out about a company associated with the Olympics copied someone's blog post without first getting their permission, he'd be pretty upset. But what if that company was NBC Universal? Reader JC points us to the news that NBC Universal's Olympics website has been caught copying a blog post and then when alerted to it, rather than removing the content, it just removed the writer's name. It looks like the attention this story has received has resulted in NBC Universal putting her name back on the story, but the story remains on the site. I'm assuming there must be more to this whole situation. According to the link above, the original site, Tourism Vancouver, says this is "an ongoing issue with the NBC Olympic site, and [it] has been battling them for some time over it." Surely, NBC Universal, as such a strong defender of copyright, wouldn't be in the business of copying others' content without permission? Even if it believed it had the right to use her content, removing her name after being alerted to the issue appears really sketchy. Perhaps there's an explanation that involves helping out those poor corn farmers?
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Filed Under: copying, copyright, olympics, rick cotton
Companies: nbc universal
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Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
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Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
Links to this Web site without the express written permission of Tourism Vancouver are strictly prohibited. To request permission to link to this Web site, please contact djohner@tourismvancouver.com. Tourism Vancouver reserves the right to cancel and revoke any permission it may give to link to this Web site at any time, for any reason, without any notice, and without any liability.
The framing of this Web site or any of the Content in any form and by any method is strictly prohibited.
14. Postings and Unsolicited Submissions
Posting comments, communications, or any other content of any kind ("Postings") to or on this Web site is strictly prohibited.
Tourism Vancouver does not accept or consider unsolicited ideas, including ideas for new advertising campaigns, new promotions, new or improved products or technologies, product enhancements, processes, materials, marketing plans, or new product names. The purpose of this policy is to avoid potential future misunderstandings or disputes. Accordingly, please do not send any unsolicited ideas, suggestions or other materials ("Submissions") to Tourism Vancouver.
If you send Submissions to Tourism Vancouver or this Web site you automatically grant to Tourism Vancouver and its assigns a perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable, nonexclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display the Submissions or any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques associated with the Submissions for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, using any form, media or technology now known or later developed, without providing compensation to you or anyone else, without any liability whatsoever, and free from any obligation of confidence or other duties on the part of Tourism Vancouver or its assigns, and you agree, warrant and represent that all moral rights in the Submissions are waived.
So by the article appearing there, miss604 granted TourismVancouver a license. Tourism Vancouver thinks it can also control who links to their site, very cute.
Now, Tourism Vancouver is running Olympic logos, which means they may be a media partner of the games. Potentially, that means that what is on their site might actually be cross licensed to the Olympics. NBC in turn is a American Olympics partner. So you could see how NBC might have gotten the story to work from.
Miss604 pretty much gave up at least part of her rights to Tourism Vancouver, so she may have no dog in the fight anymore. Tourism Vancouver doesn't sound overtly upset about it, as a DMCA notice would normally be enough to end the discussion and move it off to the lawyers. I am thinking there are some other connections not being revealed in the story.
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Re: Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
So they're saying that trying to link to http://www.tourismvancouver.com/ without express written permission of the people running http://www.tourismvancouver.com/ is prohibited?
Well, then, maybe I won't link to http://www.tourismvancouver.com/ at all. If http://www.tourismvancouver.com/ doesn't want any traffic, http://www.tourismvancouver.com/ won't get any traffic.
http://www.tourismvancouver.com/ deserves nothing but scorn and hatred.
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Re: Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
If that is the case then I would imagine a (hopefully) quick explanation of this to the original author would sort this out. But instead of an explanation they removed her name from the article, that seems to imply something else is going on.
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Re: Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
Did you even read the stuff you copied from their site??
Was she paid for her story? Were there any contract terms involving who hold the copyright?
Hey, if you're into leaping without all the facts--I can provide you with an awesome parachuting experience. Just don't ask me where the parachute is. ;P
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Re: Re: Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
If you check her site, she is happy and letting the matter drop because NBC put her name back on the piece. I am thinking (my opinion only) that it would suggest that the licensing isn't an issue, just attribution.
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Re: Re: Re: Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
If you bothered to look at the site, you would see that she wrote an article. She did not submit a comment. She has a contract with Tourism Vancouver, which she says would be violated by handing the article to NBC. (check her comments in the link above.) RTFA, THEN comment.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
It seems that perhaps there is more to the story, right?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
Your logic remains flawed.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Toursim Vancouver terms, interesting!
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Idiots.
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Maybe?
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[/i]
So you are saying that CTV (Canadian TV Network that has the Lic. to broadcast the Olympics) can just use NBC feed to rebroadcast as they are "partners"?
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Re:
It's another nice half story for a Techduh Friday, I guess!
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Re: Re:
Isn't this Canada? The DMCA is a US law.
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Re: Re:
Hilarious!
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Re: Re:
http://www.tourismvancouver.com/(Are Dingbats) http://www.tourismvancouver.com/(Are Dingbats)
http://www.tourismvancouver.com/(Are Dingbats) http://www.tourismvancouver.com/(Are Dingbats)
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Figures
--Motto of Big Content
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Public domain
True, it's not like her work was released to the public domain. In that case, there'd be no story because she gave them permission to take it, right?
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Re: Public domain
Yes. If she had released her work into the public domain, there would be no story. That is correct.
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Re: Re: Public domain
"Look, even if the content is public domain, as it is, it's still *socially* the norm to properly credit it. We work on that assumption that most people would do so. And if they don't, we highlight that they're socially deviant. And that's a news story. A big one."
How is it not a story if this lady had released her content to public domain and someone used it this way, but it is a story if it happened to you?
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Re: Re: Re: Public domain
Ok, let's try again, from the beginning, since I still can't quite figure out your complaint here.
1. If the content is released in the public domain, anyone can do what they want with it.
2. Still, it is *socially* expected that you would properly credit it.
3. I responded to your question as to whether or not there was an issue if NBC had used her content without *permission* and noted that, yes, it would be fine.
4. The issue of whether or not NBC gave her credit was separate.
Got it?
Either way, if the content were public domain, NBC would still be able to use it, but it would be socially expected that they would properly credit it. Given NBC's position on content "ownership" this story was how they did neither. The story isn't in how they used the content, as much as it is how NBC use of the content went very much against NBC's own stated position.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Public domain
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Public domain
Sure it would be news. Posting content that someone else wrote, and removing their name from it, even if legal, when done by a large company, is something that would certainly be story worthy. Not sure why you think it wouldn't be.
My only comment on it not being news was if it were done AND properly attributed, as was the original case.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Public domain
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NBC Olympics
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Re: NBC Olympics
Seriously? You post this two-liner and everything is all better?
Oops, I'm probably offending the Imperial Leadr.
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Re: NBC Olympics
Umm, since the credit was there to begin with, and only removed after the complaint...what was the complaint over?
Oh, right, you're just lying.
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It's not all over yet
The article was written under exclusive contract to Tourism Vancouver. There was never any question of it being bundled and re-posted anywhere, because that was specifically excluded by contract.
Even if you were going to go by social norms, the social norm is to snippet the post, credit it, link it to the source. But that (again) is not what happened here; it was wholesale theft of copyrighted intellectual property, whether the copyright belongs to Rebecca or to Tourism Vancouver.
The name is back on the article, but it's not linked, which I think is heinous and again indicative of systematic bad faith.
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Re: It's not all over yet
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Links
Notice how old those terms of use are? From May 2001. The early days of the Intertubes.
I wonder if they do the same courtesy and actually ask those sites they link to if they can have permission to link to them. I somehow doubt it.
They have a nice pagerank of 7, so they don't need to ask my permission if they want to link off their front page to any site I'm working on! :D
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state run news media
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Hurting popcorn farmers?
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Lessons from the Past
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copyrights
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rights
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rights
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shame on NBc
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