Sherman Fredericks 'Steals'* From Me

On Friday, we pointed out that Sherman Fredericks, the former CEO of Stephens Media and publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (who lost his job last month), seemed to have a rather hypocritical view on copyright infringement, embedding an infringing Saturday Night Live video on his blog. This was the same guy who famously announced that as CEO, he had Stephens Media "grubstake" (i.e., "fund") Righthaven, the company that has sued bloggers for quoting even snippets of LVRJ articles. He was quoted as saying that it was no different than stealing a Corvette out of his driveway. So, according to Mr. Fredericks, reposting 4 paragraphs out of a 34-paragraph article -- or about 12% (as Righthaven did in at least one case) is just like stealing a Corvette. Ok.

So, it seems rather amusing to me, as pointed out by iamtheky that Federicks seemed to have absolutely no issue whatsoever with copying from my blog in trying to mock our post about Righthaven suing Matt Drudge. He quoted one sentence out of a five sentence post -- or 20%. In other words, he copied more of my post than was copied on some of the sites Righthaven is suing. So, I'm confused, Sherm, is copying stealing or not? And why is it okay for you to do it to me, but not for others to do it? And where's my damn Corvette?

On top of all that, to make it even more silly, Fredericks misrepresents what I said. I questioned why anyone would rely on a Righthaven-connected newspaper as a source ever again, for fear of getting tied up in a bogus legal fight, and he says I really mean "use without permission." No, Sherm, that's not what I meant at all, and you know it. I said as a source. I said nothing about copying anything -- though you seem to have no problem "stealing Corvettes" from me when it suits your needs, huh?

* For those who miss the obvious intent here, no, I'm not actually accusing Sherman Fredericks of "stealing" from me, because that's ridiculous, and copying is not "stealing" in any way shape, or form. I'm merely pointing out the hypocrisy of Fredericks by highlighting how he does not live up to his own confused standard.

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