The Internet and Copyright...

We talked very briefly in class on Thursday about copyright issues. Truthfully,  I hadn't thought much about but then this happened on Friday: The Day the Internet Threw a Righteous Hissyfit about Copyright and Pie. It turns out that a magazine called Cooks Source occasionally gets its material from the web without seeking permission from the authors. This wasn't a problem in the past but this time, one of the author's contacted the editor and requested compensation of $130 to be donated to the Columbia School of Journalism. $130 -- that's it!! The editor's response was kind of obnoxious -- she basically said that a) the article was in the public domain so it's okay to use, and b) because of heavy re-writes, the author should pay the magazine. It was the latter comment that wreaked havoc on the Internet and basically ruined Cooks Source's reputation. Oops. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out....