Richard Thompson, on an event concerning my college newspaper:
The Helmsman, in its anger, wanted the photo removed and WMC obliged – which again is proper, even if not necessarily required.
And while WMC’s reported rationale of “blanket permission” is flimsy when it probably meant to argue fair use, it is hard to argue, again, that the facts in the Helmsman’s Oct. 12 story are not now in the public domain.
So, the Helmsman’s front page story seems a bit much.
If anything, it simply would have been nice if WMC acknowledged that the story first appeared in the Helmsman. (A nicely detailed and well written story, by the way.)
Lesson learned: A little credit goes a long way.