Davey Winder
Wednesday, 11 February 2009 20:45
IT Industry -
Market
Page 1 of 4
The BBC is more often in the news for hassling others over the misuse of BBC copyrighted material on the web. Imagine our surprise when we learned that the BBC was on the other end of the copyright infringement stick for a change.
The BBC Technology Correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, is apparently the
most visible person online
in the UK. The BBC itself is always
picking up awards
for innovative Internet use.
The BBC is also quick to act when it considers
it's own intellectual property rights have been abused, such as when a
website offered knitting patterns for Dr Who dolls.
The chap whose site posted those patterns got a short sharp reminder
from the BBC which included the words "We note that you are supplying
DR WHO items, and using trade marks and copyright owned by BBC. You
have not been given permission to use the DR WHO brand and we ask that
you remove from your site any designs connected with DR WHO."
Now, in a story very quietly broken by by
Bitter Wallet yesterday, it seems the BBC is getting a taste of it's own medicine.
Mike Bailey, a semi-professional photographer from Birmingham in the
UK, had taken what he believes to be "by far the best Birmingham night
time skyline photo available to view on the web."
It looks like the BBC thought so to, because after Mike
posted the
image to Flickr he noticed it
also appeared on the TV as a backdrop
during a 'Live from Birmingham' story on BBC News.
Naturally, Mike was more than a little miffed and contacted the BBC who
offered him UKP £75 for the copyright misuse oversight. Mike did not
accept as he found "this a derisory offer." What he did do this morning, was contact
us at iTWire and we took up the case on his behalf.
Find out what really happened in Mike Bailey's own words, read the full
text of that BBC apology and offer as well as what Auntie had to say to
iTWire on the matter over the next page or two.
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