Freedom of the Press for NYC’s Bloggers

Speaking as someone who operates a blog I can safely assert that while I might shoulder some of the burdens shared by my friends in the print (READ: legit) media the same cannot be said about the benefits. I have been grilled by the police for taking photographs of Christmas decorations (of all things). A number of my colleagues (both in print and online) use my site as a source for news leads without citing it. Others filch images and/or intellectual property from New York Shitty and shill it as if they were their own. The previous know who they are and I see no need to mention them here.

In any case, there are a couple of blog-related items I have been meaning to pass along. First up this item I received from Queens Crap:

Dear Blogger:

ChangeNYC.Org, a new grassroots action network, was formed in part to empower New York City’s blogging community. We feel that as citizen journalists of the New Media, bloggers do a better job covering their neighborhoods, community issues, and local politics than the mainstream media. We are on the ground – in the grassroots – instantly reporting the news as we see it, free of corporate bias and control.

That’s why ChangeNYC.Org is taking a strong stand to support a lawsuit brought by civil rights attorney Norman Siegel on behalf of a City Hall blogger and two other online journalists denied press passes by New York City. We have just begun an online petition calling on the City to reform its press credentialing system to assert and protect the First Amendment rights of bloggers.

Please sign the petition below and post a link to it on your blogs, so we can show the City just how many people depend upon the work that you do:

http://www.petitiononline.com/12151791/petition.html

For more information on this lawsuit and the plaintiffs involved, check out this link:

http://truenewsfromchangenyc.blogspot.com/2008/11/freedom-of-press-for-nyc-bloggers.html

I have signed this petition. If you value reading (or writing) online content you should as well.

Last up, I have long mulled over creating a blog whose sole purpose is calling out miscreants for intellectual property theft and plagiarism. Obviously I have never gotten around to this. I’m a busy Greenpointer. Thankfully I do not need to: someone has already done it.

The site is called You Thought We’d Wouldn’t Notice…but we did and while its primary emphasis seems to be things artistic the above item should be of interest to anyone who has had their online images appropriated without their permission. Do give it a read. Those of you who wish to make a submission can learn how by clicking here.

Miss Heather