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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/16/sunday-times-legal-threats-glenn-greenwald-news-uk-intercept
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Sunday Times' legal threat to Glenn Greenwald is no way to stop criticism | Sunday Times' legal threat to Glenn Greenwald is no way to stop criticism |
(35 minutes later) | |
When one of its articles has been criticised in the land of the free for failing to live up to the standards of robust journalism, what should a newspaper do? Well, the first thing obviously is to send the lawyers in. | When one of its articles has been criticised in the land of the free for failing to live up to the standards of robust journalism, what should a newspaper do? Well, the first thing obviously is to send the lawyers in. |
The Sunday Times has demanded that journalist Glenn Greenwald remove an image of its front page from a highly critical blog on The Intercept. Not because it was libellous or indeed wrong, but because it infringes copyright. As Greenwald’s blog article alleged that the paper lied – it subsequently removed an erroneous reference to his partner David Miranda meeting Edward Snowden in Moscow – and showed the worst kind of behaviour in British journalism, it seemed a weak sort of response. | The Sunday Times has demanded that journalist Glenn Greenwald remove an image of its front page from a highly critical blog on The Intercept. Not because it was libellous or indeed wrong, but because it infringes copyright. As Greenwald’s blog article alleged that the paper lied – it subsequently removed an erroneous reference to his partner David Miranda meeting Edward Snowden in Moscow – and showed the worst kind of behaviour in British journalism, it seemed a weak sort of response. |
In contrast, Greenwald’s response was not only to refuse but to link to the letter from News UK’s general counsel. | |
No, @TheSundayTimes, we are not going to remove the image of your humiliating headline from our story about it https://t.co/55sCL5irnT | No, @TheSundayTimes, we are not going to remove the image of your humiliating headline from our story about it https://t.co/55sCL5irnT |
I asked News UK why they had sent the letter amid growing criticism of the article – which alleged that Russia and China had access to files leaked by Snowden. A spokesperson for News UK said: “We are happy for our editorial content to be subject to robust and healthy political debate. However, as a matter of general principle, we need to protect our intellectual property and make no apologies for expecting others to pay for the professional journalism we invest in.” | I asked News UK why they had sent the letter amid growing criticism of the article – which alleged that Russia and China had access to files leaked by Snowden. A spokesperson for News UK said: “We are happy for our editorial content to be subject to robust and healthy political debate. However, as a matter of general principle, we need to protect our intellectual property and make no apologies for expecting others to pay for the professional journalism we invest in.” |
Now, while it is the case that showing the whole of a front page could be said to constitute substantial use and therefore to contravene copyright (which is why newspapers show so many ragouts of pages) it is at the most generous a technical argument. | Now, while it is the case that showing the whole of a front page could be said to constitute substantial use and therefore to contravene copyright (which is why newspapers show so many ragouts of pages) it is at the most generous a technical argument. |
Even non-lawyers would recognise that showing the front page of a newspaper when writing about one of its stories would surely constitute “fair use and fair dealing”. | Even non-lawyers would recognise that showing the front page of a newspaper when writing about one of its stories would surely constitute “fair use and fair dealing”. |
But then I suppose nobody said that all’s fair in love and leaking. | But then I suppose nobody said that all’s fair in love and leaking. |
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