Althouse: "Poppy isn't getting Junior back, Vice vowed, muttering: 'He's my son. It's my war. It's my country.'"

November 30, 2005

"Poppy isn't getting Junior back, Vice vowed, muttering: 'He's my son. It's my war. It's my country.'"

Sad that you can't get to Maureen Dowd's column? She's Dowding it up big time today. (TimesSelect link.)

By the way, in the paper version of the Times, the word "my" is italicized all three times in the quote. In the online version, there are no italics. That's bugging me.

11 comments:

riley dog said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 11/30/05, 9:26 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Do not post copyright-violating links to the column here.; 11/30/05, 9:46 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Normally, I am quite happy that I don't have Times Select. But thanks to riley370's link, I didn't need it here. (Of course, in my other guise as an IP attorney, I do wonder about the legality of this).

But I marvel at how she writes. It is amazing that she can get so many liberal misrepresentations in one short piece. Of course, she uses the same ones over and over again, but...

I am sure that someone has done it already, but I think that a generic MoDo piece would be extremely interesting to read or write.; 11/30/05, 9:50 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Ann,

Good request. And technically, I infringed her (or the Times') copyright by reading it from the link. (though, the copyright violation may be excused under Fair Use). But I, for one, should know (and do) better.

On a technical (legal) level, loading the article into my browser (or even just the memory of my computer) is the creation of a "copy" - i.e. reproduction under 17 USC 106.

Posting a copy on your own web site is obviously reproduction, and posting a URL to a site having such, knowing that it is an illegal copy, is contributory infringement. And that contributory infringement may extend to Ann if she condoned it, which she obviously didn't, given the deletion of the offending post.; 11/30/05, 9:58 AM
Laura Reynolds said...: Whenever my dog does a MoDo, I rub her nose in it and send her outside. I heard recently that doesn't work.; 11/30/05, 3:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Next Monday, it will be printed in my local paper, so I'll read it then, although I seldom read Dowd (as I seldom read Ann Coulter who appears on the same page Monday in my local paper).

Now if my local paper posts it on their website, what then?; 11/30/05, 4:16 PM
reader_iam said...: The thing about Dowd's work ais that I don't even have to get to the part about copyright infringement. The quote Ann used as her post headline was enough to recreate the entire thing in my mind.

(And by the way, I take the whole copyright issue very seriously indeed. Which, I sometimes think, is unfortunate: if I had all the money back that we've spent on music CDs and legal downloads over the year, my son's college fund would be significantly healthier. What price integrity!); 11/30/05, 5:13 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: The legal problem with the URL from the deleted comment is that it referenced an infringing copy of MoDo's column. Any newspaper that posts her column is highly likely to be doing it legally (i.e. under license). A URL to her column openly available at another paper is highly likely to be just fine.

When the NYT (or whoever) syndicates her column to other newspapers, they are granted a copyright license. That license traditionally extended to printing her column in their papers, but more recently, some at least include posting it on their web sites. And a license granted to post on their website implicitly licenses anyone viewing it to make the copies required to view it, and, most likely, also to print it.

But this gets to the absurdity of Times Select, because much of the content protected by Times Select will ultimately make it legally into the unprotected World Wide Web through syndication.

Maybe what you are paying for when you subscribe is getting columns, like MoDo's, a little faster, and some content that is otherwise unavailable.; 11/30/05, 11:00 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Maybe a shorter answer would have been better. When your local paper posts the MoDo article on its website, you can legally link to it, but you still can't copy it to your own website.; 11/30/05, 11:02 PM
Anonymous said...: Seems like md has been all over the boob tube lately...saw her last night on letterman...my sense is she`s lookin for a "mate." Period.

oh, and ann? love your stuff.; 12/1/05, 8:02 AM
knox said...: I can't get over how weird and stupid it is that the NYT expects people to pay for their columnists.

It's like, "helloooo! there are these things called "blogs" that people can go to for FREE and get much more interesting opinion than your tired, predictable lineup"

I can't believe I just typed "hellooo!" The only thing worse would be "helloooo, people!..."; 12/1/05, 5:43 PM