I am sure everyone had seen the Obama HOPE poster by Shepard Fairey, but I am not so sure many people follow up on the legal issues behind it. The basic plot goes like this: before creating the work, Fairey used Google to search for an Obama image as a reference. He found an image he liked and created what became a ubiquitous poster. More than a year after the poster went viral the Associated Press contacted Fairey, claimed they own the original image and wanted to sue him for damages. The best thing about it is that the photographer who actually took the original photo, Mannie Garcia, is not an AP employee but a freelancer who claims he holds the copyright and is not just fine with what Fairey created -- he is proud of him. Here’s Fairey in his own words:
We live in interesting times. Technology is evolving so fast, we can barely keep up with the ethical and moral questions raised. And so if the AP chooses to put themselves at the wrong side of progress and sue Fairey for his use of the original photo, I plead with them to please also sue my newspaper Maariv and its caricaturist Zeus (Ron Zisenbach) who yesterday published the following image, in clear violation of the AP standard of fair use:
The Hebrew text says: “solar eclipse”
I watched a few of the first episodes of Israel’s first season of Survivor, but saw enough shots in which the female contestants’ backsides where filling up the entire screen, in order to determine this was no mistake, only another step closer to imitating the raunch culture oversees. When the Israeli media started referring to contestant Marina Kavisher as the “National Rump”, I noted to myself that this just might amount to sexual harrasment as defined by Israeli law – but kept my mouth (and keyboard) silent. As Israeli Survivor’s season 2 comes to a close, Maariv’s fashion supplement Sig’non decided to commemorate this important event with “The Big Ass Quiz” which urges readers to match each backside with a face.
I don’t have anything particularly smart or funny to say about this. I just think this is another sign my countrymen are growing further apart from me – or vice versa.
A month ago I was contacted by Maariv, Israel’s second leading daily newspaper, in regards to a post I wrote the previous month. Feel free to pause here and refresh your memory by reading that post again. Basically, I was complaining about the paper’s international gossip guy who was reading material on PerezHilton.com, translating it to Hebrew, and passing it as his own without giving proper credit. As an avid Perez reader, the matter bothered me enough to conduct a four day inquiry which proved two thirds of all the items can be traced to the online gossip site.
The Maariv employee who contacted me wished to converse without attribution. Apparently he read my post and wanted to discuss the issues I raised. We carried a fifteen minutes long phone conversation about journalism, ethics and blogging, which was surprisingly pleasant and intelligent. I conveyed my notion of ‘giving credit where credit is due’, he talked about legal issues and made a distinction between exclusive and non-exclusive items. Overall I felt there was room for dialogue, and so I suggested ending each item with an acronym that will indicate the source, e.g. [ph] for a Perez Hilton item, [td] for a Tyler Durden item and so forth. I also suggested he put his arguments into writing so that I would publish them on his behalf at the end of the original post, but he politely declined.
We ended the conversation with my insinuating I’ll keep an open eye for any changes, and this is exactly what I did:
Little by little evidence piled to suggest people at Maariv took my critique seriously and the amount of credited blurbs was on the increase. The phrasing started to change from “Julia Roberts was seen…” to “Blogger Perez Hilton reports that Julia Roberts…”, and non-exclusive items sported phrases such as “American tabloids report” et cetera.
All and all, and to my genuine surprise, it seemed my little insignificant rant about credit giving had made a difference on Carlebach street, and while not to the extend that I suggested, someone did instruct the gossip guy to dispense credits more freely and to change the general tone of the segment.
Following are some visual aids from the previous weeks. The green boxes indicate the items that directly credited Perez Hilton, but to truly appreciate the change of tone you must be able to read Hebrew:
Maariv, one of the biggest Israeli newspapers, is in the process of reinventing itself. Among other things, a new segment was added to the daily gossip column, featuring international blabs.
Every time I read the new segment I was filled with a sense of Déjà vu, but until recently I could not put my finger on it. Last week I had my Eureka moment: Maariv’s international gossip guy, Moshe Tazat, must be just as big a Perez Hilton fan as I am – only difference is I am reading Perez on my free time, and he is making money (not much, mind you) stealing material from the website, translating it to Hebrew and passing it as his own.
After conducting a short four day inquiry, I can say this:
- Out of 27 gossip items in Maariv – 18 can be traced back to similar posts that appeared on Perez, and usually exactly 48 hours before – that’s two out of every three items.
- One of the posts in Maariv appeared as an exclusive celebrity sighting on PerezHilton.com.
- The Hebrew phrasing is often eerily close to the English one.
- Only once was Perez credited for an item.
Of course there are some extenuating circumstances that should be mentioned:
As things happen in the world, Perez and other online gossip sites are reporting them almost instantly, while the printed press can only print them the next day, making it look like it is coming in second every time.
Also, it is common practice among bloggers to quote from other sources for the benefit of the blog’s readers, but credit is almost always given. In any case, there is no way to compare people who write for the fun of it and a reporter (to use the term loosely) which actually gets a salary for his work.
The sheer number of occurrences, similar wording, and quoting same figures, suggest someone on Maariv’s payroll has been slacking off by practicing some copy-and-paste journalism. The Maariv segment called ‘Global Swamp’ should really be called ‘Perez in Hebrew’, giving props to the guy that actually does any work.
Following are some visual aids from the last four days:
The green arrow indicates the single Maariv item that credited Perez Hilton.
