the guy below has it exactly right.

...in my BCS Breakdown posts.

Where was the mistake? Was it that the video should never have had the embedded code, or that the C&D letter should not have been sent since the DMR publicly offered said code?

Mr. Snider,

While it is noble you have chosen to take responsibility and completely appropriate as well it doesn’t completely address the underlying problem revealed here. The concern this employee showed in protecting the paper’s rights on the internet is fully a part of their superior’s misunderstanding of the medium. When in doubt, their best option is to act in a conservative manner – and for someone concerned about their job in a tenuous time for the industry, that’s got to be the right answer.

But instead of acting conservatively The Register should have been working to embrace other mediums with this momentous event in your state. That would mean going out of your way to encourage not only embedding of videos but interacting with the paper’s own online presence to increase awareness of the scope of this disaster.

Look at what the Times-Picayune did in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina if you need an example. It won them a Pulitzer - an opportunity you are making more difficult with this type of action.

I write this as a former newspaper reporter who finally left the business because of the intractability of my superiors on this score. Now I live in Peru and I’ve been following this story in various news outlets but also on a personal level through the blog and Twitter entries of the writers for Black Heart Gold Pants.

Think about that, I’m a hemisphere away and I’m caught up with concern for what is happening in Cedar Rapids through the power of the internet. And you’ve allowed that opportunity to reach me and all the people like me due to your policy.

Now you have been given a glimpse of this little corner of the internet through this mistake I urge you to not take out your irritation on the employee that was simply following your direction but look to see the other opportunities this has opened to you.

C.J. Schexnayder
www.kleph.com

I think it’s a pretty classy move for the paper to publicly apologize. I assume they’ll offer some other sort of written apology to BHGP in the form of a letter, email, etc., to make up for what they did. The fact that Mr. Snider also sought out BON to apologize shows that they went the extra mile to clear the matter. Kudos to them.