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Home > New York Times v. Newser

New York Times v. Newser [1]

Submitted by DMLP Staff on Wed, 03/11/2009 - 16:07

Summary

Threat Type: 

Correspondence

Date: 

02/01/2009

Status: 

Pending

Disposition: 

Material Removed

Location: 

Illinois

Verdict or Settlement Amount: 

N/A

Legal Claims: 

Copyright Infringement
Trademark Infringement
On February 25, 2009, Michael Wolff, founder of Newser, blogged that Newser had recently received a letter from the New York Times requesting that it stop using the Times' "T" logo.  Newser is a news aggregator and curator... read full description
Parties

Party Receiving Legal Threat: 

Newser, LLC

Type of Party: 

Media Company

Type of Party: 

Organization

Location of Party: 

  • New York

Location of Party: 

  • Illinois
Description

On February 25, 2009, Michael Wolff, founder of Newser [2], blogged [3] that Newser had recently received a letter from the New York Times requesting that it stop using the Times' "T" logo.  Newser is a news aggregator and curator that links to and summarizes articles from news sources around the web.  The articles are presented as a grid of photographs, each overlayed with the title of the article, the amount of time since it was uploaded, and the source of the article, usually accompanied by a small logo of that source. 

Wolff has not made the letter public, but he told [4] the Neiman Journalism Lab that it came from the New York Times Company's General Counsel's office.  Wolff told [5] Peter Kafka, of MediaMemo, that the letter was "legal boilerplate," warning that the Times would "pursue all available remedies, both criminal and civil" if they continued to use the logo.

Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for the Times, told the Neiman Journalism Lab that they asked Newser to stop using the "gothic 'T' logo," which is trademarked, and asked Newser to take down a photo that was used without permission and misattributed, presumably on the basis of copyright. She also told the Neiman Journalism Lab that Newser took down the photo. The Times' logo still appears on Newser for summaries from the New York Times.  

Related Links: 

  • Newser Off The Grid: The New York Times Is Falling Down, Falling Down... [3]
  • Neiman Journalism Lab: NYT threatens news aggregator over use of logo; Newser's reply: "I'll put a skull and crossbones in its place" [4]
  • MediaMemo: New York Times to the Web: Hands Off Our "T"! [5]
Details

Web Site(s) Involved: 

Newser
[2]

Content Type: 

  • Photo
  • Graphic

Publication Medium: 

Website

Subject Area: 

  • Copyright
  • Trademark
Court Information & Documents

Jurisdiction: 

  • Illinois

Source of Law: 

  • United States
CMLP Information (Private)

Priority: 

1-High

CMLP Notes: 

Source: Nieman Journalism Lab

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Source URL (modified on 08/20/2014 - 11:08pm): https://www.dmlp.org/threats/new-york-times-v-newser

Links
[1] https://www.dmlp.org/threats/new-york-times-v-newser
[2] http://www.newser.com/
[3] http://www.newser.com/off-the-grid/post/11/The-New-York-Times-is-Falling-Down-Falling-Down.html
[4] http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/02/nyt-threatens-news-aggregator-over-use-of-logo-newsers-reply-ill-put-a-skull-and-crossbones-in-its-place/
[5] http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090225/new-york-times-to-the-web-hands-off-our-t/