March 4, 2009
YELM BLOG 3 YEARS OLD THIS MONTH - NVN REVAMPS WEBSITE; FOR 3RD TIME IN AS MANY YEARS
Dear Readers;
This month marks the third anniversary of the Yelm Community Blog.
I want to thank all of you for your interest and support.
This is the only Yelm community website that has all news stories archived for public view dating back 3 years.
Your support, RSS feeds and daily viewership have continually kept this site on the first page of Google in searching for Yelm and usually ahead of even the city's official newspaper website, the Nisqually Valley News (NVN)
Speaking of the NVN, they have revamped their website AGAIN, for the 3rd time in as many years. This means that all previous links to their stories before last weekend no longer work and none of their links can be accessed through an archive search. You can still access excerpts of some NVN stories here on the Yelm Community Blog that were quoted the last three years.
NVN Editor/Publisher Keven Graves wrote me yesterday to say that they now require written permission to use any material from their "revised Web site". You will note they are not even linked from this story, as this writer will be using less of their items.
The law says their links can be used by anyone without permission, as acknowledged on these sites:
CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE
While Mr. Graves has clearly made public his disdain for Blogs, and this Blogger in particular for these three years, restricting and enforcing access being circulated from his newspaper's website makes no sense.
If this is some attempt to reprisal towards me, he just shot himself in the foot.
This Blog has been one of the major sites driving traffic to his links for three years, indeed one of the largest community-based websites to do so. In a world where newspapers are dwindling (San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle P-I may close and Denver's Rocky Mt. News did shut down), newspaper's websites are paying their bills with advertising dollars on their links driven by the number of views and viewers.
The Yelm Community Blog will now quote the NVN on a very limited basis.
With a third revision of their website, one would think they want more traffic there, not less.
This Blog has always quoted and given credit for the source of NVN excerpts, plus the link for the reader to access for themselves.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST AND CONTINUED SUPPORT.
THIS BLOG HAS NEVER TAKEN A CENT FROM ANYONE FOR ADVERTISING, NOR SOLD ANY MATERIAL.
THIS SITE IS PROVIDED AS A COMMUNITY SERVICE TO EXCHANGE IDEAS ON STORIES OF LOCAL INTEREST, PROVIDING AN ADDITIONAL RESOURCE OF YELM-AREA INFORMATION AND DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW.
UPDATE THURSDAY, MARCH 5 @ 2PM:
The local weekly newspaper's Op-Ed piece this week says about the newspapers revamped website:
"Blogs are an interesting and dynamic facet of nay community, and we'll include yours - if you are willing to exchange links. Shoot an e-mail and we'll talk."
WOW! Keven Graves saying this? Has this man REALLY changed his views about blogs since he has put them down for years?
HMMM!
I wrote to Mr. Graves on Tuesday, March 3rd requesting the Yelm Community Blog be linked under his newspaper's Community Links. He responded that because the Yelm Community Blog is a non-profit, he will add the link.
Then, he asked for an NVN link to be placed on the Blog's link page.
Anyone can see this blogger has no Links page, takes no money from anyone and is beholding to no one.
Graves responded, "If we're to provide a free link to yelm.com, I would like a reciprocal link. I believe it's a reasonable exchange."
I wrote to him:
The Yelm Community Blog has never had a Links page, is non-profit as you previously stated and is beholding to no one. Other non-profits you have on your Community Links (i.e. Yelm Animal Alliance, Thurston County Humane Society) have no Links page either and you also have profits like Yelm Cinemas that has a Links page only for movie related sites, so yours is not there.
Can you share your thoughts as to why the Yelm Community Blog is to be excluded, when others are not that are in the same circumstances, & in particular, after your Op-Ed today inviting blogs to join your revamped site?
He refused without sharing links.
IS THIS BLOG A THREAT TO HIS NEWSPAPER?
HE BEHAVES AS IF SUCH IS THE CASE!
Congratulations, Steve on
three great years of very balanced and fair reporting!
I always read your blog every morning and appreciate your efforts to inform us of what's going on in and around Yelm.
You are a true treasure and I honor all that you
have done for our community.
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you......
Thanks for what you do.
Bill
It appears the NVN is so secure that they don't need our business anymore. I really resent the biased view of the NVN and would suggest all use other newspapers for true news coverage.
Keep linking and report this to the ACLU - they are messing with freedom of speech!
A worthy milestone, three years. Congratulations, and keep bloggin' along.
BAS
Congratulations!! It is good to read that 3 years have passed; newspaper and internet are a good source of global news. One must go through the information's provided by newspaper and net to get daily updates. Laptops can help those who want to gather information through net while traveling or working in cars.
Shelly Smith
Laptop Computers
I saw the new online version of the NVN and it appears there is not much online activity. To provide a comment,they want way too much personal info and most will not give that online. There still is not anything pertaining to Yelm City government, except of couse the same ole rosey, peachy keen biased view of Harding. They need to print the real news on him and let the public know exactly what they have for a mayor. I am very disappointed in the online version of the NVN.
Graves' NVN launches a new website with an RSS feed (RSS is a format for sharing content on the Web. Four of the newspaper's sections are now on an RSS feed.) and two days later, he writes me a letter saying he requires written permission directly from him for the Yelm Community Blog to "reprint or redistribute articles, photos and all other content from www.yelmonline.com."
I chose to have my attorney write to Mr. Graves to remind him about the U. S. Constitution's First Amendment Right of Free Speech and the fair use doctrine of copyrighted work.
You can read that letter unabridged here:
Dear Mr. Graves:
We represent Stephen Klein, the publisher of a community blog located at www.yelmcommunity.org. We are responding to your March 3, 2009 email communication to Mr. Klein in which you threaten potential enforcement action for alleged copyright infringement of material from the Nisqually Valley News website, www.yelmonline.com. We have examined Mr. Klein’s use of material from the Nisqually Valley News (“NVN”) on www.yelmcommunity.org and have concluded that there is no basis for your March 3, 2009 communication. Mr. Klein’s website does not reprint or redistribute articles and photos from the NVN. Rather, www.yelmcommunity.org may have only used infrequently “other content” from www.yelmonline.com. Such usage is protected by the doctrine of fair use embodied in 17 U.S.C. § 107 which states: “The fair use of a copyrighted work… for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching … is not an infringement of copyright ….” All of the usage of material from your site is for a purpose covered by fair use. Thus, Mr. Klein has not violated the NVN copyright and Mr. Klein may continue to draw from the NVN website for similar fair use purposes. Mr. Klein need not, and will not seek, your permission to use “other content” from the NVN on his news site.
Mr. Klein’s site, www.yelmcommunity.org is nonprofit and is intended to provide comment on matters of public interest to the Yelm community. Sometimes, this involves critiquing material expressed in the NVN or drawing on such material as a basis for further discussion. When Mr. Klein does so, his blog provides a link to the NVN site, which provides the NVN with continued benefit. Therefore, it is surprising that you would indirectly threaten Mr. Klein through your March 3, 2009 communication, particularly when the NVN invites viewers to sign up for a RSS feed, which automatically draws content from the NVN site for secondary use.
In sum, Mr. Klein is acting well within his rights in publishing his views on www.yelmcommunity.org, and providing a means for public discourse, as he has done in the past and will continue to do in the future. He takes very seriously any threats, implied or overt, to his continued, rightful communications.
Please contact the undersigned should you have any further concerns or questions about www.yelmcommunity.org and its treatment of NVN. Thank you.