richardhowe.com

I’m curious to know how folks first learned of the death of Osama bin Laden. I saw it on Twitter at 10:31 pm in the midst of multiple tweets announcing the President’s speech. That sent me scurrying to the TV. In the following hour (the President didn’t go on until 11:40 pm), it was painful watching the network stars fill the air with inane chatter while adopting a “we know what’s going on but can’t tell you” air of superiority. So I guess I learn of breaking news from Twitter and other social media, I search for visuals on TV as the event is happening, and I go to the internet for analysis and follow-up. How about you?

Here are some other bin Laden observations:

This “how could they kill him when he was unarmed” story line that’s developing is absurd. This was a nighttime, heliborne raid deep inside another country against the deadliest terrorist in the world. To have survived this long, bin Laden had to have elaborate escape plans any part of which may have involved harming those coming to get him. For the commandos, it was a time of swift action not deliberate contemplation, made even more so when other occupants of the compound commenced firing. That so many of the women and children who were in the compound survived is testament to the restraint of the commandos.

Death photos: I’m glad the President chose not to release them. What good would come of it. The only ones who will dispute this decision are the overseas zealots who hate America and the domestic zealots who hate Obama.

Sunday night celebrations: The spontaneous gathering in front of the White House on Sunday night where a crowd embraced and sang patriotic songs was wonderful. So were the gatherings during the past few days at the Twin Towers. I think it’s good that our national reaction has been dignified and restrained. America won justice, not the World Cup.

Pakistan: When I lecture about the Civil War, I often say history is not black and white, it’s always gray. I feel the same about Pakistan. Many in that country have long been obsessed with India. They tend to see Arab terrorists as either distractions or potential allies in that struggle and so they aren’t going to be very supportive of our efforts to subdue our bad guys. But as frustrating as Pakistan might be, it is an unstable government in possession of nuclear weapons in one of the most volatile corners of the world. For that reason, we should keep our emotions in check and continue to do business with them.

The New York Times yesterday reported that a company from Nevada, Righthaven LLC, has entered into an arrangement with Media News Group (the owner of the Lowell Sun and many other newspapers) whereby Righthaven scours the internet for people using copyrighted articles and photographs from Media News Group papers and, when they find such an instance, they get an assignment of certain rights from Media News Group and then immediately file suit against the blogger. A suit against a 20 year old young man with a severe disability who lives with his mother in North Carolina who had used a photo that had originally appeared in the Denver Post (a Media News Group paper) brought this practice into the national spotlight.

Righthaven’s standard practice is to sue immediately. There’s no letter demanding you remove the material. It doesn’t matter whether you give the original creator (i.e., the newspaper) credit for the article or photo nor does it matter that the offending blog is not a for profit enterprise. Because Righthaven is only assigned very limited rights by the copyright holder, some commentators contend that Righthaven has no enforceable right in such lawsuits, but the company seems to target those who have little legal savvy and lack the means to defend themselves in court. Righthaven looks for a quick four or five figure settlement to dismiss the suit and then splits the settlement with Media News Group (which has refused to answer any questions about the arrangement).

Dean Singleton, the former owner of Media News Group before he led the company into bankruptcy last year, routinely called individuals who reposted copyrighted material “thieves” who were committing “larceny.” Although Singleton may be gone, his philosophy remains although the company’s method of enforcing its rights has all the characteristics of a cheap scam that would run afoul of the consumer protection statutes of most states. Still, just to be safe, bloggers, Facebook users and everyone else using social media should proceed with caution when using any content from our local newspaper. It won’t be much of a sacrifice.