70 Web content gone terribly wrong

Here is one example of Web publishing and online copyright gone terribly wrong.

Recently, the headlines in Romanian newspapers have been held by the unveiling of the fact that the secret police used children as young as 12 as informers, spying on their teachers and parents.

In a country still troubled by dark memories of the former dictatorship this is just an episode in a long string of discoveries, some more shocking than others. Public personnas from all walks of life are routinely uncovered as regime collaborators.

But here’s where the story takes a turn for the weird and wrong. Riri is a Romanian who was forced to flee from the country with her family during the communist regime, due to opression enforced by the infamous secret police known as “Securitatea” (”The Security”).

She was shocked to discover one day that one of her childhood pictures, that she had posted online at some point, had been used by newspaper Bună Ziua, Ardeal to accompany an article describing the tactics employed by the secret police in recruiting and using the children as their informers.

Absolutely no information is given about the picture itself, which can naturally lead the reader to believe that the person in it must be an obvious example of a “spy kid”. Since then, the article has been covered by more than one online newspaper or news agency. Worse of all, it made the frontpage of the printed version of “Bună Ziua, Ardeal”.

You can imagine how this makes Riri feel, or you can read it in her own words: violated.

She is now seeking some kind of repairs, a tough undertaking, considering the flimsy state of the legal system in Romania today. The printed version is already out and cannot be recalled. The damage has been done. At the very least, she hopes to obtain a public apology.

What does this unfortunate episode tell us? It only goes to show what I’ve been stating before: copyright is still an alien notion to most Romanians, simple citizens, journalists, politicians or businessmen alike. Normally, one does not simply take a picture off the Web and uses it in such a loaded context. First of all, because you’re not supposed to do this without inquiring for some sort of permission from whoever owns the legal rights to the picture. This goes double if you’re going to use it to illustrate an article with such deep implications as the one in this story.

Undoubtedly this will serve to raise awareness towards copyright and journalistic professional ethics in Romania another notch. Sadly, it had to make a victim in the process.