Wonkette Hates The Hatchet Too!
Popular political blog Wonkette called the Hatchet out for douchebaggery on Monday.
Here’s how the story breaks down:
-Wonkette posted a picture of Ben Stein that was owned by that kid who is always taking pictures.
-The Hatchet sent a “Cease and Disist[sic]” and threatened legal action.
-Wonkette posted the letter and allowed it’s users to comment.
Here are a few of my favorite:
-“For the most expensive school in the county, you’d think the tools would be able to afford some spellcheck.”
-“Let’s pass around the hat to hire Franny the Tranny to SHIT ON THE CHEST of the above mentioned photo editor.”
-“I’m not familiar with GWU, but I’m assuming they teach neither law nor journalism.”
Rationality- 1
Hatchet- 0
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Comments
Yes, they are legally in the right. However, the way they went about it was incredibly unnecessary. If they had just shot the blog an email asking them to take it down, or a link with credits, that would be the mature way to go about it. But to threaten their legal team, whose existence I’m not entirely sure about, is downright nasty. Blogs usually get all of their images from “borrowing” through google image search and will always take down images if they are asked to. It just seems like they got a bit trigger happy with something could have been resolved without a formal letterhead and demands.
Legally, a parody and satire site is often given fair use. Comedy sites like SomethingAwful.com have been threatened with lawsuits all the time, but in the end they have no legal substance.
I’m not sure if that extends to images. Regardless, the Hatchet didn’t do anything wrong, they just went a little overboard with their response.
Hey, I am confused. Doesn’t the photo belong to the student who took it?
Isn’t the Hatchet more or less right in this situation?