The report this weekend–from Apartment Therapy–about Apartment Therapy getting a takedown notice from the NY Times legal department for unauthorized use of the Times’ IP reminds me of the Apartment Therapy story from June 2004 about Apartment Therapy getting an angry call from the NY Times Home Section writer Marianne Rohrlich.
Rohrlich was pissed at AT’s weekly replication of the Times Home Section content, photos, links and such. AT’s response was to aw shucks about what big fans they are, and to tout the amount of traffic they’re driving to the Times’ site:
“Did it occur to you that it is not right to just LIFT other people’s work?” she asks me. (“Do you know what blogging is?” I want to ask.) “Our legal department is going to be calling you.”
Calling us! Legal department! Whoa!
I had a Shawn Fanning moment. Is this Napster 2004? Are we in trouble?
Now Matt and Andy are on the case, The Case of the Fishy DMCA Martyr Ploy.
DMCA Takedown notice: The NYTimes goes to war, wants to shut us down [at]
Apartment Therapy on Getting Into Trouble [at]