Gawker: valleywag, lane hartwell

Copyfight!

Owen Thomas — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:19:29 EST

Lane Hartwell, the photographer at the center of the "Here Comes Another Bubble" imbroglio, is on a panel discussing copyright tonight.

Got something to add to the calendar? Send it to calendar@valleywag.com.

Michael Arrington beats up woman on blog

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:04:19 EST

What does Michael Arrington have against women? A lot, apparently. His latest target: A blog commenter named "Shelley," who spoke up on behalf of a photographer, Lane Hartwell. Hartwell, as we'd guessed, was the copyright complainant who knocked the popular "Here Comes Another Bubble" video off YouTube. Canadian blogger Mathew Ingram said Hartwell was wrong. Shelley responded in Hartwell's defense. And that's when Michael Arrington joined in and turned the conversation awkward.

"Mathew is right, you are wrong," Arrington wrote. "But since Lane is a woman, it really doesn't matter what she did as far as you are concerned. She's a woman, so she's right." And Arrington's a man, so he's right! Got it. We're beginning to understand why BusinessWeek columnist Sarah Lacy threw a drink in this guy's face.

Here comes another takedown

Owen Thomas — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:07:13 EST

"Here Comes Another Bubble," the charmingly derivative video by the Richter Scales which satirizes Web 2.0 in the style (and to the tune) of Bill Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," is gone from YouTube. The reason? A copyright claim by an unspecified third party. One possibility: Sony BMG, the record company which owns Columbia, Joel's label; lawyers there might take issue with the use of Joel's composition. YouTube and Sony BMG struck a deal last year, though, so that seems unlikely. Another possibility: Lane Hartwell, the photographer whose photo of yours truly was used, uncredited, by the Richter Scales. Hartwell posted about the incident on Flickr. I sort of wonder if this was all my fault — and not just because I was in the video.

Here's why: In a conversation with Hartwell last week about the photo, I'd asked if she'd considered taking up her copyright claim with YouTube, where the video was hosted. I called Hartwell today to ask if she had, indeed filed a DMCA takedown request with YouTube, but didn't get an answer.

From the tone of her Flickr post, though, it's unlikely Hartwell was very satisfied by the Richter Scales' response, which suggested that it was simply too difficult to credit everyone whose work they incorporated into the video. In an interview with Kara Swisher, Richter Scales singer Tom Shields defends the video as engaging in fair use.

I'm not a lawyer, but I've heard plenty of lawyers say that fair use is a murky and difficult area of copyright law. The role of photo credits in copyright law is likewise not entirely clear to me. Giving credit where credit's due simply strikes me as the polite thing to do. And surely not that difficult.

I suspect that the members of Richter Scales were simply lazy. The photo Hartwell took of me is the first search result for me in Google Images. It's not particularly apt, either; I was working at Business 2.0 when she photographed me. On top of that, it makes me look even more jowly than I am.

But enough about me. The issue here is credit, and whether it's hard to give. I've reposted the video above for the sole purpose of discussing the works that went into it. Please view it, and if you recognize a copyrighted photograph whose author deserves credit, please name him or her in the comments. I'll start: The photograph Hartwell took of me was originally published on Epicenter. The iconic photograph of Michael Arrington smoking a cigar was taken by Ramona Rosales for Business 2.0. Those two credits only took a few minutes to identify and write. How hard could it be to fill in the rest?

We against the desert

sdavalos — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:39:40 EDT

BLACK ROCK CITY — Burning Man, the annual arts and "counterculture" festival in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, is also known for the harsh conditions associated with being in the fucking desert, people. Here's the casualty list for the moment: Yours truly found herself a little bit faint on the open playa, and lacking Internet access to Twitter for help, merely doused herself in water and hitched a ride on a passing art car. We have decided to become largely nocturnal, like all higher-functioning desert creatures. Lane Hartwell, photo correspondent for Wired.com, has been taking gorgeous pictures as usual, but succumbed to a touch of the old heatstroke and electrolyte imbalance this afternoon. She is just dandy now with the application of Gatorade and a little lie-down. Those who breathed a sigh of relief that they would not end up on the Wired blog are now SOL. Rumor has it that Stefan Magdalinski, CTO of Moo, the popular printer of business cards decorated with Flickr photos, is en route, but is mysteriously not returning phone calls, email or Twitter. His arrival was apparently imminent this morning, and will continue to be imminent until we can figure out if he's taken off for Mexico instead of Black Rock City. More as more geeks show up, keel over, or go missing.