thedrifter
12-26-06, 07:31 AM
Blogger not Shock-ed by decision
By Jay Fitzgerald
Boston Herald General Economics Reporter
Sunday, December 24, 2006 - Updated: 04:54 PM EST
Hachette Filipachi Media last week may have pulled the plug on its controversial photo magazine Shock after just eight issues. But a former Green Beret who now uses Massachusetts as his base is vowing to keep up the fight against the French media giant who he says illegally published one of his Iraq War photos without his permission.
“Even with Shock out of circulation, the battle with HFM has only just begun,’’ said Michael Yon, in an exclusive e-mail interview with the Herald as he prepared to go back to Iraq for more war reporting for his popular Web blog(www.michaelyon.blogspot.com).
“They have consistently refused to negotiate a settlement.”
Shock, an American knock-off of the French magazine Choc, got off to a rough start last spring when its first issue ran a cover photo of an American GI cradling a dying Iraqi girl hurt by a roadside terrorist attack.
The only problem: Yon, who has gone to Iraq several times to chronicle the war, took the now-famous photo — and he said HFM used it without his permission.
After the two sides couldn’t reach a settlement agreement, bloggers across the country rallied behind Yon, organizing a boycott of HFM’s magazine products such as Shock and Car & Driver. They contacted stores, readers and others, urging them to pull Shock from newsstands, among other things. The grassroots cyber campaign became so intense that HFM U.S. chief executive Jack Kliger was forced to send letters pleading with stores to carry Shock and blasting Yon as a publicity-seeking ideologue.
Last week, Kliger announced that Shock would no longer be printed and fired the magazine’s eight employees, though HFM plans to retain Shock’s Web operations.
HFM cited disappointing newsstand sales for its decision.
Yon, in an e-mail received on Saturday, said he learned about Shock’s demise while flying to Qatar before heading back into Iraq.
“My first thought was, TARGET DESTROYED,’’ said Yon.
“But later, I wondered if that phrase wouldn’t leave a false impression that the fight was over, because from a legal standpoint, it’s not even really begun. The failure of the magazine doesn’t cancel out my copyright or leave the publisher off the hook.” Yon stopped short of saying the furor over his photo was the sole reason for Shock’s demise.
Others have noted HFM, which has also discontinued publication of another of
its U.S. magazines, is facing the same problems of other media giants in the cyber age: Readers are flocking to the Internet for news.
But Yon said the bloggers’ boycott “delivered a devastating blow” to Shock.
“The blogosphere is capable of becoming a virtual-guerrilla at times, and in that context HFM’s hugeness translates into vast vulnerabilities,” said Yon, using the language of insurgency to describe the campaign against Shock.
“HFM is powerful in the way a freight train is powerful, and they are also vulnerable over those long stretches of track. They cannot operate effectively if the blogosphere is constantly harassing them in innovative ways.”
Yon said he’s legally pressing ahead with his case against HFM — and may take action against retailers that refused to yank off newsstands the edition of Shock that used his photo.
HFM has said it purchased Yon’s photo from an agency and didn’t know Yon owned its copyright when it published its first edition.
Ellie
By Jay Fitzgerald
Boston Herald General Economics Reporter
Sunday, December 24, 2006 - Updated: 04:54 PM EST
Hachette Filipachi Media last week may have pulled the plug on its controversial photo magazine Shock after just eight issues. But a former Green Beret who now uses Massachusetts as his base is vowing to keep up the fight against the French media giant who he says illegally published one of his Iraq War photos without his permission.
“Even with Shock out of circulation, the battle with HFM has only just begun,’’ said Michael Yon, in an exclusive e-mail interview with the Herald as he prepared to go back to Iraq for more war reporting for his popular Web blog(www.michaelyon.blogspot.com).
“They have consistently refused to negotiate a settlement.”
Shock, an American knock-off of the French magazine Choc, got off to a rough start last spring when its first issue ran a cover photo of an American GI cradling a dying Iraqi girl hurt by a roadside terrorist attack.
The only problem: Yon, who has gone to Iraq several times to chronicle the war, took the now-famous photo — and he said HFM used it without his permission.
After the two sides couldn’t reach a settlement agreement, bloggers across the country rallied behind Yon, organizing a boycott of HFM’s magazine products such as Shock and Car & Driver. They contacted stores, readers and others, urging them to pull Shock from newsstands, among other things. The grassroots cyber campaign became so intense that HFM U.S. chief executive Jack Kliger was forced to send letters pleading with stores to carry Shock and blasting Yon as a publicity-seeking ideologue.
Last week, Kliger announced that Shock would no longer be printed and fired the magazine’s eight employees, though HFM plans to retain Shock’s Web operations.
HFM cited disappointing newsstand sales for its decision.
Yon, in an e-mail received on Saturday, said he learned about Shock’s demise while flying to Qatar before heading back into Iraq.
“My first thought was, TARGET DESTROYED,’’ said Yon.
“But later, I wondered if that phrase wouldn’t leave a false impression that the fight was over, because from a legal standpoint, it’s not even really begun. The failure of the magazine doesn’t cancel out my copyright or leave the publisher off the hook.” Yon stopped short of saying the furor over his photo was the sole reason for Shock’s demise.
Others have noted HFM, which has also discontinued publication of another of
its U.S. magazines, is facing the same problems of other media giants in the cyber age: Readers are flocking to the Internet for news.
But Yon said the bloggers’ boycott “delivered a devastating blow” to Shock.
“The blogosphere is capable of becoming a virtual-guerrilla at times, and in that context HFM’s hugeness translates into vast vulnerabilities,” said Yon, using the language of insurgency to describe the campaign against Shock.
“HFM is powerful in the way a freight train is powerful, and they are also vulnerable over those long stretches of track. They cannot operate effectively if the blogosphere is constantly harassing them in innovative ways.”
Yon said he’s legally pressing ahead with his case against HFM — and may take action against retailers that refused to yank off newsstands the edition of Shock that used his photo.
HFM has said it purchased Yon’s photo from an agency and didn’t know Yon owned its copyright when it published its first edition.
Ellie