Balloon Juice - MSM Thugs
This seems idiotic.
I spoke to Scott Nelson, the Tulsa World Web Editor (They can be reached at (918) 583-2161), and tried to make sense of their policy, and got nowhere. I am even more confused with what they are trying to accomplish than before I called.
According to Mr. Nelson, you need written permission to print the article and must print the article in full. I responded that I didn't want to copy a whole article, just a quote, and he said that was not allowed and would be copyright infringement. When I asked why, he said it was their policy so that things wouldn not be 'taken out of context.'
When I asked him if things were taken out of context, then wouldn't that be libel, and they could get legal redress that way, he waffled. I then re-stated the question, and asked him if it was the policy of the Tulsa World to threaten lawsuits for copyright infringement to prevent possible cases of libel, and he didn;t really have much of an answer.
He also said, contrary to the letter to Bates Online, that linking was allowed, which leads me to believe that Mr. Bair, the Vice-President, was perhaps a touch overzealous or using terms he was not familiar with. Who knows.
At any rate, I must add that Mr. Nelson was very polite and helped to the best of his ability, even though he sounded agitated about the whole ordeal.
I thought by calling them I would clear some things up, but I am as confused as ever. |
