A Brief History of Righthaven (UPDATED)

Thursday, September 08, 2011

Update: According to Vegasinc.com, Righthaven has warned that it might have to file for bankruptcy. The warning came in an emergency request for a stay on an order that it pay $34,045 in legal fees to blogger Wayne Hoehn, who successfully defended himself against a Righthaven lawsuit. (original article continues below)

Over the past year, we have reported a couple of times on a company called Righthaven, which buys certain copyrights on newspaper content and sues bloggers and aggregators who repost said content, either in part or in full. This week, several news outlets have reported that Righthaven is facing an existential crisis. Where did Righthaven come from, and how close are they to extinction?

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OTM Staff Picks: September 6th, 2011

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

It's that time again, when the staff at On the Media recommends some of our favorite things. Feel free to offer us feedback in the comments section, and enjoy!

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On the Media Fall Internships Available!

Friday, September 02, 2011

Do you live in the New York area? Are you in school or a recent graduate? Would you be interested in a fall internship with On the Media? Well here's your chance!

There are no specific criteria for the OTM internship and past interns have come to the show from a wide range of backgrounds. While we do not expect new interns to have any experience with radio production, some journalism experience is preferred. Basically, we are looking for applicants who are motivated, avid media consumers, and excited about learning.

If you are interested in working with us, please send a cover letter and resume to Alex Goldman at agoldman@wnyc.org. Feel free to contact him if you have any questions as well. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Your IP and their IP

Thursday, September 01, 2011

Typically, when companies file lawsuits are filed against people for infringing on their intellectual property, they don’t actually name the defendents. Instead, they sue a group of John Does, and subpoena the identities of the defendants from their internet service providers. This practice has always been controversial, and defendants are starting to challenge this method of identification in court.

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A President's Reading List? What About His Doodles?

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Last week, the commentariat pounced on Obama's light-weight summer reading list, but what would they make of his doodles?  Yes, doodles, those absent-minded sketches found in the margins of the White House stationary.  A reading list, after all, is a highly calculated, self-conscious act of political semiotics, but a doodle ... truly, what better window could there be into the unguarded presidential id?

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OTM Staff Picks: August 29, 2011

Monday, August 29, 2011

Every week the staff of On the Media pick a few of our favorite things.  Feel free to offer us feedback in the comments section, and enjoy!

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Witnessing a Free Libya

Friday, August 26, 2011

Yesterday, as I was sitting at my desk in the WNYC offices, I experienced a moment I never thought I would in my lifetime. The events taking place in Libya right now are historic, but for my family they are life changing.

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From the Archives: Storm Surge

Friday, August 26, 2011

As news about the impending hurricane continues to flood into the to the station (nyuk nyuk nyuk), it has become the sole topic conversation at the On the Media offices.

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Case History of a Wikipedia Page

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

It's with no small amount of trepidation that I betray one of my most shameful internet browsing secrets: I find the talk pages and the history of Wikipedia articles far more interesting than the articles themselves. I can spend hours reading about a Wikipedia entry while completely ignoring the actual content of said entry.

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OTM Staff Picks: August 22nd, 2011

Monday, August 22, 2011

It's Monday.  Time for OTM staff picks. Feel free to offer us feedback in the comments section, and enjoy!

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Walking Out

Friday, August 19, 2011

A clip of Christine O’Donnell, former US Senate candidate and Tea Partier, walking out during an interview with Piers Morgan has been making the rounds online. Who wins when a guest walks out?

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Ron Paul's Media Disappearing Act

Thursday, August 18, 2011

In the wake of Ron Paul's narrow loss to Michele Bachmann in last weekend's Ames Iowa Republican straw poll, a media meta-narrative has emerged: why is the media deliberately ignoring Ron Paul? We took a look at reaction from around the web for some insight.

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Staff Picks: August 15th, 2011

Monday, August 15, 2011

It's Monday.  Time for OTM staff picks. Feel free to offer us feedback in the comments section, and enjoy!

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From the Archives: Snap Judgments

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

This week's uproar over Newsweek's Michele Bachmann cover reminded us of a piece we originally aired in 2008 about the ethical rules that govern journalistic portrait photography. As Bob puts it so eloquently in the piece "Where is the distinction between artistic prerogative and photo 'gotcha'? If a picture is worth a thousand words, who protects the subject - and the audience - from a thousand words manipulated or taken out of context?" Have a listen!

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A Cookie By Any Other Name

Monday, August 08, 2011

Despite their bad reputation, it’s hard to imagine an internet without cookies. The small, suspicious looking files sitting in the bowels of your browser are what allow you to have a shopping cart when visiting Amazon, save your passwords on frequently visited websites and receive the kind of targeted advertising that helps underwrite much of the internet’s free content. Handled responsibly, cookies can be useful tools that respect your anonymity while offering you great services. And if you really don’t like them, well, that’s what your browser’s privacy settings are for.

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Staff Picks: August 8, 2011

Monday, August 08, 2011

A lot of our producers are on vacation this week, so the staff picks are only going to be the stragglers who are hanging around. But what we lack in quantity, we make up for in quality! As always, feel free to tell us what you have been into lately in the comments section!

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AT&T's New Password Policy

Friday, August 05, 2011

A few weeks ago, WNYC’s own John Keefe appeared on our program and wrote a blog about how easily he hacked into the voicemails of AT&T and Sprint cell phones. Now it appears that AT&T is changing the default setting on new phones, so that users will automatically have password protection on their voicemails unless they turn the feature off.

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Factual Error Not Found On Internet

Thursday, August 04, 2011

It would appear that The Wall Street Journal isn’t the only news organization that's struggling with how to revise web content after getting its facts wrong.  Reuters recently suffered an embarrassment when, after publicly acknowledging a serious error in a column by David Johnston, they deleted the original URL altogether.

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Practicing Journalism's Ancient Arts

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Earlier this week, in what amounts to journalism's answer to a Civil War reenactment, the reporters and editors of the University Press -- Florida Atlantic University's student paper -- assembled an issue of the paper without the use of computers. That meant writing stories with a typewriter. 
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Jonnie Marbles Goes To Jail

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

After British comedian ‘Jonnie Marbles’ threw a pie in Rupert Murdoch’s face about two weeks ago, Brooke talked with Yes Men member Andy Bichlbaum about what he thought it meant to throw a pie in someone’s face.

We now know that throwing a pie in Rupert Murdoch’s face means ...

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