f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

.. There’s been more action since we wrote about the Schenectady Daily Gazette cracking down on local internet forums that were infringing on its copyright (by posting entire articles and not even linking to the article). The Gazette says linking to them with a summary and short quote is fine, but lifting the whole article or editorial goes too far.  Yesterday, Pat Zollinger, Administrator of the local internet forum The Unadulterated Schenectady, received the official desist letter from the Gazette’s lawyer, Michael J. Grygiel of the Albany office of Hiscock & Barclay. Click to see the Letter.   You’ll find a Comment from Pat and my response below.

At Pat’s Schdy.Info and at the Rotterdam Internet forum, there is a lot of talk that this whole crackdown is political, and Schenectady’s Mayor Brian U. Stratton is behind it.  For the reasons given in my response below and my reply at the Rotterdam Forum, I disagree.  Of course, we don’t have all the facts and aren’t all that good at reading minds.

Request for Copyright Experts and other Opinionated Lawyers:  In another Comment submitted around 1 PM today, Pat Zolliner disagrees with my assessment that her repeatedly posting entire articles from the Gazette goes beyond Fair Use and is copyright infringement.  She says “And I dare to say, David, that even though you are positive that I am infringing on copyright, there will be other lawyers who would interpret it differently.”  I invite legal minds with an opinion on this matter to express it in the Comment Section of our prior post.

a long day–
the dog and the crow
quarreling

… by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

For years, The Mainichi Daily News (an English-language Japanese newspaper) offered a selection of about a dozen haiku every month, some of which we’ve shared here.  Although that feature apparently ended last August, Mainichi now presents a Daily Haiku.

With Tinywords.com silent since last June (when it ended with a Roberta Beary classic), you might want to bookmark the Mainichi Daily Haiku page, for a small haiku surprise each morning.

Today’s Mainichi selection is by our friend Ed Markowski:

drought
the well digger wrings out
his t-shirt

…… ed markowski – Mainichi News Daily Haiku Nov. 14, 2008

Here’s Ed’s last poem chosen for Tinywords.com:

prairie sunset
the glow of the cattleman’s
branding iron

… ed markowski – Tinywords.com (May 9, 2008)

And, I just discovered today that Issa is now on Twitter.  You can get a classic poem from the Japanese Master Kobayashi Issa everyday on Twitter, translated by Haiku Guy David G. Lanoue.  Except that they all come out as one-liners, tiny poems are a fine match for Twitter’s tiny format.  Here’s today’s Issa on Twitter:

people scatter like ants… the lark sings

-Issa, 1814