Jason Kottke is worried:
Things may be a little quieter around here in the short term as I deal with some stuff going on in the real world. One of the reasons for the silence is that my legal difficulties with Sony about the whole Ken Jennings thing have yet to be resolved. I can’t say too much about it (soon perhaps), but it sure has had a chilling effect on my enthusiasm for continuing to maintain kottke.org. As an individual weblogger with relatively limited financial and legal resources, I worry about whether I can continue to post things (legal or not) that may upset large companies and result in lawsuits that they can afford and I cannot. The NY Times can risk upsetting large companies in the course of their journalistic duties because they are a large company themselves, they know their rights, and they have a dedicated legal team to deal with stuff like this. In the current legal climate, it may be that the whole “are blogs journalism?” debate is moot until bloggers have access to a level of legal resources similar to what large companies have. I’m certainly thinking very seriously about whether I can keep this site going in this kind of environment.
In short, Sony got on Kottke for publishing an audio clip of Ken Jennings’ final Final Jeopardy (in advance of the broadcast). That seems like copyright fair use to me. No? If someone acquired the recording inappropriately and passed it along to Kottke, my understanding is the issue is with the person who made the recording not the person who published it. Anyone?
I want to comment on this at many levels. I agree with NewMexiKen that Sony’s beef should be with the initial violator, not with a blogger (which in my mind is the purest existing form of journalism). I’d like to write a more in-depth response, but I?m not sure that I?ll have time. I’m sure many would find the idea that Sony would go after Mr. Kottke simply appalling. It may be a fine legal line to sort through the difference between a Napster and a blogger, but it’s one that needs to be defined quickly to protect all of our rights. Hopefully, Mr. Kottke or any other bloggers are not forced away from their right to the freedom of press. Perhaps the issue should be brought up with the journalists at PBS?