That's crazy…

The way you go about things in the world is a constant source of entertainment to me, Arrington, right or wrong.

Unbelievable — actually it is believable but just plain weird.

pwnd

This is embarrassing for Fortune and the book publisher. They do look like total asses!

What a bunch of a-holes! I can't believe they called and sent that many emails over posting excerpts. I'd cancel any future business with these self-important jerks!

Those guys are total bastards. Boycot that sh*tty book.

That picture is hilarious!!!

Lesson #1 of doing favors, ask yourself, "How much is this favor going to cost me?" That also applies to someone wanting to do you a favor, it seems.

you're 100% right

Screw Fortune. The quality of their articles has gone down the toilet over the last few years. Awesome to stand up for them. I would ask you not to punish the world for a few idiots. I can't wait to see their response after this post!

Oh, please, pleeeeease, countersue them. For harassment, or something. They really deserve.
What a bunch of douche.

These guys are complete idiots. After reading the post here on techcrunch, I couldn't have been more excited to buy this book. But now, after seeing such unethical behavior, I will definitely not be purchasing this book.

forTune? is that an iTunes competitor?

This is freaking as dumb as it can get. I mean Techcrunch's every post is probably copied a 1000 times in full and we are talkin' about excerpts here….

F*** Fortune and F*** the idiots…with this kind of behavior, trust me the days are numbered.

What is most surprising though is how did David Kirkpatrick not comment on this at all….

geez. What a$$holes.

Some days I think the world is just full of stupid…

you go go, girl.

No good deed goes unpunished.

I have to admit that I would have never heard of the book unless I read about it here on Techcrunch.

Ideal tech-savvy audience, great reach — I loved the post, I actually read up on the author and was planning to buy the book.

Hey Fortune, grab a clue — What an endorsement… Now I definitely won't be ordering the book.

I'm sure I'll find it for free online somewhere, old media will never learn how to play nice with new friends.

man… that would have been soooo much work to randomly copy and paste sentences from the text.

I'll sue you all . Yes, you too,

Screw you FORTUNE!

Kirkpatrick needs to stand up and tell his publishers to go back into the caves that they came out of. I feel sorry for him. He is the one who will get hurt the most with the dip in the book sales. Or is any news good news as long as they spell the name right?

The reason I have always, and will always read TechCrunch is for Arrington's feuds that he broadcasts. Gold. pure fucking gold.

That's brutal. PR people should know how to act. More importantly, they clearly were confusing the issue by using the same word over and over again. Who says 'excerpts of excerpts'? Good for you for sticking to your guns and not backing down when you did someone else a favour and they screwed up, in writing.

So I read the original post when it appeared and was interested enough to pre-order the Kindle version of the book.

But now I'm heading to Amazon to cancel my pre-order, these stupid holes obviously don't need my $10.

Yep. I was going to buy the book as well. Not happening now.

Steal my videos please!

F them, I wasn't going to buy that book in the first place… now I'm really NOT buying that book. (note the CAPS).

that's a good one. i love the way they think. it's like prometheus (arrington) bringing fire (traffic, publicity,..) to humanity (forbes,kirkpatrick, S&S) , humanity complains that it burns their wood.

I'd love to know what David Kirkpatrick thinks about his lunatic publishers. As for me, now I won't be buying the book…

This is pure gold.

Sounds like Fortune's PR department fucked up and didn't give you the full details, and now they're putting the blame/heat on you (instead of taking it themselves).

What a bummer

Michael, thanks for taking the stand you did – Bravo!..Might be worth sticking it to them a bit more by offering it as a Case Study to the many MBA programs around the planet – good stuffe.g., "If thisw happened to you, what would You do?" …..thanks for keeping it real.

Say what you want about Michael airing dirty laundry on TechCrunch (and I've complained a few times) but I've got to respect a man that can execute on a scorched earth policy like this:

*cancel the Churchhill Club event that…
*cancel Kirkpatrick’s talk in two weeks…
*two or three future posts…

Bravo sir, scorch that earth!

Your post was the reason I pre-ordered the book on Amazon… But based on how Simon & Schuster treated you, I just canceled my order.

I feel like with a topic so dense as the Facebook effect, a few hundred words really wouldn't do the book justice, and would do what the preview for inception is doing, making viewers more confused. For some people that's fine, they'll go on and find out more about it and then make a more informed decision, or be like me and say f*** it and I can tell you that there is about a 2% chance of me going to see it. Even so, it's not like the excerpts that are posted are going to give away the meat of the story. If it were a a dramatic fiction novel that had the plot with spoilers and then the ending in the excerpts that's one thing, but it's a study of Facebook. I doubt the lengthy excerpts being posted will cause the popularity of the book to drop or anything like that.

Also I bet kirkpatrick didn't say anything because if he spoke out against fortune and how they reacted to this that it would either lose him money on this book, or lose the opportunity to have them publish another of his books in the future.

lol @ Fortune, nitpicking text like it will somehow make some sort of big difference in the long run.

LOL great post. My favorite part was when they threaten to sue for "copy write infringement."

Mike I think you cooked this up with them to sell books. I bet awareness of this book goes up 500%. Everyone loves dirty laundry. You take a flat fee or a percentage? =)

. There are a ton of books about FaceBook, but after reading the long excerpt, I was intrigued. I don't read those other sites and probably wouldn't have clicked through to read them if only an excerpt of the excerpt was in the original post. Having worked for a published, I found that books with long previews sold ones without by almost 95%.

Why leave it up to Mike to cut down the longer excerpt and choose what bits and pieces to post? Why not do it themselves. Just stupid. and if they don't want that link, I'll take it? What If I post an excerpt of your excerpt of their excerpt on MY blog?

My guess is that Fortune got the excerpts from Simon and Schuster, and gave them to you without Simon and Schuster's permission. Dan Roth wanted to bully you into taking it down just to save Fortune the embarrassment of having to explain to S&S why they gave it to you. I imagine some goofball at Fortune has lost his or her job over this, and will go on to some similar position elsewhere and probably screw things up there, too.

Maybe Potter, Esq. will back off after understanding via your post this is all about Fortune's idiocy, and not about TechCrunch. If I'm right about any of this, you'll avoid a bunch of attorney letters by making sure S&S gets your side of the story, and not just some weird version of it that Fortune is handing them.

crazy is not the word !! entertainment and PR is :D http://wp.me/pRpuJ-o

You know, I read the original emails a couple times, and it doesn't actually seem to me they granted him permission anywhere to print the whole excerpts. More than once, he says "post ON the excerpts", not "post the excerpts". It seems like this was actually a misunderstanding on Michael's part. As for the email back saying "thanks for the great post", that is clearly an error on Fortune's part.

I was more inclined to buy the book BECAUSE you provided longer excerpts and I got a taste for what it would be like to actually read it, then I otherwise would have been with shorter excerpts that contained less info. Please explain that to Fortune magazine or suggest they read Chris Anderson's book "Free."

I put that book on my Amazon wishlist after reading the excerpts on your site. I just took it off. Go fuck yourself, Simon & Schuster.

You're great, love your posts. Your new mates clearly don't read your stuff regularly & have no idea who they're dealing with. Think this social media thang might be a new concept to them too… ah well, they'll figure it out, no?

Larry you must be from fortune, suck my dick.

Crazy story. I read the original letter as clearly indicating you can include one or both excerpts, in fact, that they wanted TC to include. But what's the big deal, they are excerpts to generate interest among book buyers.

Really enjoyed the excerpts on TechCrunch. Would totally have read the rest when released.

Now, I feel like finding it on BitTorrent…
but will probably just get it from the library.

Michael,
this is probably the best time to say this.

my site just got my best ever 24 hours of traffic thanks to a link on your site (a mere link on a comment on one article)
http://www.brianshall.com

PS. Fortune is a dinosaur. Fuck em.

firstname.lastname@simonandschuster.com

Just sayin…

Me too!!

Wow, is this for real? How sad…

P.S. Facebook "Like" button is not working on this post.

I'm just sorry for David Kirkpatrick, he's the one really losing on this. Neither Techcrunch or Fortune are really going to be affected!

You thought them a lesson by writing this blogpost.

They should be thankful and pay you for it.

Damn right.

|I Like This"

LOL. Totally agree. Absolutely love his feuds!!

I love this post! Never bite the hand that feeds you…

Sorry, folks. It's plain and simple to me: TechCrunch was wrong to post the full excerpts. As was said several times, Fortune had EXCLUSIVE rights to print these excerpts.

In the second email from Fortune PR, they said "…in the first line or two, note that the story STEMS FROM an exclusive excerpt in FORTUNE…" (emphasis added). Translation: TechCrunch, hands off!

Simon & Schuster allowed Fortune to print those excerpts–no one else. So copyright infringement is definitely at play here. However, I hope Simon & Schuster is aware that their litigious approach isn't going to win them any friends–or customers.

Old media simply don't get it. Similar: Old film industry, old music industry.

Maybe its time to start TechCrunch Publishing INC. I bet a large percentage of tech books are bought on the Kindle and now the Iphone. Cut out the old book publishers. Its time to burn their boats too.

Old School. Meet New School.

Wow, talk about taking an exceptionally good move and turning into a laughable and negative moment. Bravo for calling them out in the manner you have.

So, my question is: What are the answers to the very questions you presented in your article?
Should I cancel the Churchhill Club event that I was promoting where I’m interviewing Kirkpatrick on his new book? And shall I cancel Kirkpatrick’s talk in two weeks in front of 2,000 potential book buyers at TechCrunch Disrupt where he’s talking about his new book?

The only reason I pre-ordered the book on Amazon was because of TCs original post. If it wasn't for that post, id have never known the book existed.

Take it from me, I've well and truly cancelled my order. Fuck you S&S!! A very bad way to do business. Not only have you pissed off one of the biggest Tech blogs on the circuit, who could have done lots of similar favours for tech-related books in the future, but you have also pissed the users off, the users that will eventually buy those books.

Like I said, you've just lost my sale!!! IF I do want to read it, Ill do my best to find a pirate copy on the net when it comes out.

If the intent is to sell more books, the long excerpts did the trick for me. I imagine hundreds – if not thousands – of others felt the same way.

Fortune – we get it. It's not what you "meant"… but it can't possibly be worth this. Especially since it's smart marketing (which makes it ironic).

[...] by ankur3290 under other blogs | Tags: bastards, techcrunch, welcome | Leave a Comment  You’re Welcome, You Bastards. [...]

let us know what happens :)

I going to buy this book for sure…. certainly not anymore.

After reading through the wording on the orginal email – seemed like the author wanted you to post "on" the excerpt . Writing a post on or about something does not necessarily mean one can simply post the whole content. Maybe they should have phrased it more strongly.
"agreeing to the exclusive post tomorrow on the book excerpts"
"And if you don’t mind, once you’ve read the excerpts, please let me know if you choose not to post on one and not the other or both"
Having said that – given the tech centric audience Techcrunch is a great venue to publicize such a book.

lets open up a donation account and wire 10 usd to kirkpatrik for every copy we torrent … ehm get from the library i mean. : ) screw fortune and ss.. they are not getting anything from me. anyone got time to open and manage the account? ill tt the day i get the book.

Wasn't planning on buying the book. Still planning on not buying it. But thanks for the entertainment.

+1

Mike, Due to your article, endorsement, and the excerpts I put the book on my Amazon Wishlist. I am nto sure I would have been aware of the book or whether or not I would have any interest in it if it wasn't for your article. As someone said above, why not just provide you with the excerpts of the excerpts if that is how they wanted it? Why put it all on you? It is control of the content they are ultimately after, no?

I can't really form an opinion. The parts of the email that would prove whether you were expected to post the excerpts in whole were excluded from this and paraphrased from your point of view. These portions of the email chain would prove your innocence much better than the ones you chose; curious.

OLD MEDIA IS OLD

Wow, how stupid can you get? There go your sales, Fortune. Go to hell.

Old media still thinks they operate in a vacuum where their intimidating threats are levied without consequence. They're stuck in the world where the big squash the small and there's no recourse, no echo chamber. Thank goodness for the age of transparency! Great response, Michael. As an attorney myself, I'll give you the free advice and say that Fortune will look completely stupid for pursuing a legal action and they'll be hard pressed to quantify any damages. They need to apologize and walk away.

Is the rest of the book so bad that, now that we have these small excepts, we don't need to buy it? Reminds me of movies where once you have seen the preview…you've seen it all.

Seems like you had permission. Now that they have formally threatened to sue you, why don't you file for a DJ locally, where it's a good venue for you and costs you a lot less than them?

This could be a made for TV movie that I would love to watch :) Entertaining and also a sad study of the publishing world. Cool that you stuck to your guns!

Hey, want to use whole excerpts of my stuff? I spend hours every day trying to get those golden links and I'd have killed for exposure like that. What a retard!

I thought you didn't do embargoes!

I'm with you on this one Michael. In fact, you can take all of the content from our websitehttp://www.pearanalytics.com and post it here and link back to it all day. We'll be high-fiving around here too :)

Same here – I heard about it here first and will likely buy it for my iPad via the Kindle app. You would think a publisher would like promotions of a book to a highly relevant audience.

Arington, you're the moron on this one. The second e-mail clearly says that you were posting ABOUT an EXCLUSIVE excerpt that was going to run in fortune. What about that makes you think you can post the whole text of two EXCLUSIVE excerpts.

I bought the book b/c of the excerpts on TC. I normally avoid business books, but the excerpts were great…

read the e-mails you morons.

"Again, you’re set to post as soon as our story goes live and in the first line or two, note that the story stems from an exclusive excerpt in FORTUNE of David Kirkpatrick’s new book The Facebook Effect."

"NOTE THAT THE STORY STEMS FROM AN EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT IN FORTUNE OF…." that clearly says that the excerpts are exclusive.

Read people read.

I agree. You take all the stuff that always used to go on in the background and put it right out there. Transparency is a buzzword to most of the media, to you it's how you operate and I just totally love it.

I bought the book on Amazon because i saw it on your site.

Great post. what a bunch of assclowns these guys are. Fuck them – don't promote their book, don't ever mention it again. If they call again, send them the pic at the top of the post.

This is what Fortune's arguments sound like to me:

"You can't post a little bit of the book! You can only post a little bit of a little bit!!! How DARE you think otherwise, you should know what we want even when we say the complete opposite of what we want!!!!"

This is *exactly* what happened.

The Fortune PR person should have been more clear. Way to stand up to them Arrington. Unfortunately, the real party that may get screwed in this is the author Kirkpatrick if Techcrunch decides to pull the plug on future pieces about the book. BTW, loved the graphic with the baby giving the bird…classic.

Why is our world so fucked sometimes?

Sadly, it seems that the publisher's arrogance and lack of tact will hurt the author, whom I'm betting had little say in the whole fiasco.

What ever happened to laughing things off, or discussing them at length, instead of jumping straight to filing lawsuits? Christ…

Don’t take down the content. Fuck the suits.

The Fortune PR hack screwed up. But Fortune is exposed to a lawsuit from S&S. For all we know, S&S is exposed to a lawsuit from the author too. Hence the panic at Fortune.

Listening to this, the place where it really blew up was Fortune's senior management response and the call with Dan Roth. If he had shared his problems with you, instead of pointing fingers at you, you all could have fixed this in a heart beat and some apologies.

Ok, so Simon & Schuster wrote Bridge Under Troubled Water, but what exactly is The Fortune? Is it like Mint or something?

Clearly a case of corporate CYA (Cover Your Ass). Somebody at Fortune PR gave Mike the excerpts, then after the post was up, he was happy with it. That's why he (and Kirkpatrick) sent the thank you e-mail to Mike.

Then somebody at Simon & Schuster (probably some douchebag copyright lawyer) saw the post and realized that according to their dinosaur standards, the excerpt was too long. So they called Fortune and threatened them. The Fortune PR guy wet his pants and realized he'd made a mistake, and started calling Mike frantically.

As with all corporate cowards trying to cover his ass and save his job, instead of admitting his mistake, he tried to blame Mike: "I didn't give you permission to post the whole excerpt.' Yeah, right. That's why you thanked him for such a great post. You didn't think there was anything wrong with it until you got the call from S&C.

Total douchebaggery all round. But Mike, you really need to read about 'escalation'. It's when stubbornness and pride causes situations to get out of hand because someone won't back down. You get yourself into all sorts of trouble because you let petty arguments that could easily be negotiated escalate into epic legal battles (like the Joojo: if you'd simply negotiated your shareholding downwards as FusuionGarage proposed, the lawsuit wouldn't have happened)

You could simply have told a TechCrunch intern to edit the original post and reduce the length of the excerpts. Ten minutes' work. Then you could still have written this post blasting Fortune & S&S if you feel you really need to vent. But letting this escalate into a costly lawsuit just because you don't like being threatened is really not very emotionally intelligent.

And in this case, no good deed goes unpublished.

Michael, you should get a digital copy of the entire book, and post the entire thing on TechCrunch. Make them suffer!

If they had originally wanted u to take excerpts from the excerpts, they would have done it themselves and sent you a lot less of the book.

TC should have just taken down the post, and then cancelled all the promotional events and appearances for the book and author. That's the only language the Fortune and S&S guys will understand. I am amazed how self-important these people are; as if all these little rules and guidelines and micromanaging of free promotion works. No wonder old media is dying, managed by these kinds of retards who don't see the big picture of what they are trying to accomplish, i.e. sell books.

This is a perfect example of how new media and old media just do not speak the same language. In the end, instead of saying yay, the old dying media is again pushing itself further into the hole.

I read most of your posts (you like that) but I don't like you. In this case though, tell Fortune to go fuck themselves.

That dude can count me out as a reader…

Aren't you covered under Fair Use, in any event?

agreed, fortune should be boycotted and deserves to die an inevitable slow death.

Libraries – the worst form of piracy.

You people make me sick.

Learn to spell joe … learn to spell.

Its JOE SHMOE not joe smo

You have quoted lots of original content. Makes no sense to me. I say you're in error.

It's like Nixon and Watergate, the first minor offence quickly spins out of control coming back to bite the bastards on the bum.

I wasn't impressed by your soft approach to promoting the book, but this post more than acquits you.

Great journalism.

The guy's trying to tell you there was no miscommunication, but he can't even spell "copyright". Riiiight…

O Michael do you have to post such images??? Keep it clean you T$%ts!!!
Here is a website for you all to visithttp://www.appgiveaway.com

I just posted a comment about your story on Fortune's original article, and they deleted it within ten minutes…how nice of them.

Chin up–they're running out of trees.

I agree with Larry. Fortune's guidelines weren't very clear, but I see no signs that they authorized TechCrunch to print the entire excerpts. No reason they should, either, since they get no money from selling the book, and the links back to Fortune are of dubious value since 'Crunch has duplicated exactly what they ran.
The miscommunication doesn't justify their abuse, but it doesn't exactly merit Michael's scorched-earth reaction, either.

And I actually thought about ordering that book…geez

Mike,
I am not sure if Fortune had directly or indirectly mentioned not to publish the full excerpts but your statement that all the content should always be made free is very selfish. Just because the model work for you, does not mean it works for everyone. In the WSJ case, you said they should make it freely available.I totally disagree. Again.
It is up to content owners to decide whether to distribute free in public or charge. It is so simple and I do not know why it is so difficult for you to understand.

When will they learn that it's not about who's got more lawyers, but who's got more followers.

Unbelievable. I was set to buy that book, but probably won't now… I'll wait till most of the excerpts show up on other sites. Unless they apologize of course. Btw, is there any "their side of the story" to be expected?

What I don't get is that they asked you to agree to an EMBARGO yet I thought you don't do that kind of stuff?

Re-reading carefully the e-mail exchange, I understand what they wanted. It said "note that the story stems from an exclusive excerpt in FORTUNE of David Kirkpatrick’s new book". So Fortune had exclusive rights to those excerpts, so they look stupid when they give them away!

They just forgot to communicate…

Michael i am with you on this! Where do these guys live? I’ll look for the book on some illegal sites or even better I will patiently copy-paste page by page from google books as soon as it is available!!

Brian speaks the truth. Any link on a popular awesome site like TechCrunch is GOLD. I dont know what the people at Fortune are thinking…I wouldnt be surprise to see in a few days/weeks a apology from someone at Fortune. Talk about not knowing what damage you could do by harassing Mr. Arrington…Fortune will learn :)

Is Fortune.com another Elevation Partner company?

I actually pre-ordered the book after reading about it on TechCrunch. (see the screenshot of my order Simon & Schuster, Inc.) – you really should be thankful for TechCrunch doing you a favor. http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9151/screensho...

Book seems to be good, but i would never find out about it if not TechCrunch.
Michael – thanks for sharing info about this mess. I hope it is going to turn out well for TC.

What percentage of visitors to your post with complete excerpts would go on to click through to the Fortune site? You may be entirely correct that a new media landscape will reward those with reputation. East coasters should check their clocks before calling the west coast. But that shouldn't mean a junior person acting on Fortune/S&S' behalf who isn't clear enough means copyright should be abrogated. This may be a foolish business strategy but it should still be their call — you could give them the decision to remove the post altogether or keep as is to minimize your work. To decide a course because you're pissed off and threaten (harming your audience) to withhold further coverage harms the perception of the high quality work Techcrunch always delivers when emotions aren't running inflamed (or sleepy.)

What a bunch of idiots. I say cancel all the events involving the author and explain exactly why you're cancelling them – see how they deal with THAT kind of PR.

Hi Michael,
I thought the message was clear to use the excerpts! After all, isn't Fortune supposed to be able to communicate in Clear English? Sigh…

I always enjoy your site and your comments/opinions!

Thanks,
Matthew

This definitively could have been avoided if they new how to communicate a little better. Its just such a stupid issue to even have.

My Friend Mike,

I am so sorry you had to go through this SHIT… I just come down to TC for your posts and had to read this junk.. wasting your time writing about this crap and wasting my time.

Yeah… i am pissed too as you are … i wish tc has some good lawyers.. let me know ..

cheers, nag

whew… it's a good thing there's no crossover in audience between techcrunch and kirkpatrick’s book. otherwise, this might be damaging.

m3mnoch.

That might've been relevant had that first "thank you" response would've just said, "thanks, Michael, we really appreciate it. There's just one thing – we technically can't have you use the excerpts in their entirety; can you cut them down to this instead?

[revised excerpt 1] [revised excerpt 2]

Thanks! Again, this is a great article, we just have to CYA, you know?"

Highly doubt Michael would've had any problem whatsoever to make those adjustments.

Instead, they respond like the world's going to end.

You can't really help with their ancient mindsets.These buffoons are going to take an entire lifetime to learn how essential all this really is. As for this particular case, i think it's pure unprofessional.

Fuck Fortune. And fuck Janice Potter.

That said, it's hilarious that she's such a barely literate moron that she can't even spell 'copyright'. Here's to hoping this grabs the attention of her superiors, and eliminates any upward mobility in her career that she might've had were she not a moron.

P.S. Not buyin the book. Won't support a publishing house that behaves like this. If the author ever self-publishes, I'll buy a copy then. Fuck Fortune, Fuck Simon & Schuster, Fuck Janice Potter.

I really sympathise with M.A. on this. Contained in the microcosm of this story are most of the reasons why the old dead tree publishing world has been dying away. They really don't get it.

It is actually even more crazier. Fortune did not gave him the excerpts – they wanted Mike to blog about their promotional article for free, provide several links to them, and only post some small part of the excerpts. So basically they would gain huge promotion from TC for free, while TC will gain virtually nothing out of it.

Moreover, after Fortune published the excerpts, anyone can blog about it and quote them, that's standard blogging practice. So they actually didn't permit him anything which he can't to on his own.

agreed. this stinks of a PR eff up for sure.

that is so true. Its like the new tech world zipped by them. If companies/magazines like those don't know how to do and handle Tech sites, and Social Media…they will become extinct.

Nothing beats watching a classic MA swagger in front of big pubs that won't follow up on their scary letter..

It seems pretty damn clear even from the limited email snippets you posted that what Fortune wanted was for you to link back to their exclusive content and not to copy/paste it into your own post. Setting aside the question of whether they were harmed or not, you are being disingenuous when you claim that you could not possibly know what they meant.

As a TechCrunch reader I can say that it is the norm on TechCrunch to post almost all the text from the reference. I don't find fault with TechCrunch in this case. They did it with good intentions. Escalating it to a fight and then threatening to take to to a court is very unfortunate.
My support to Mr. Arlington on this one.

(On a side note, I always wondered why TechCrunch posts entire text, instead of just linking. Their intentions behind the practice are besides the point.)

You could've just removed the excerpts like they asked. Instead of being a tech diva.
But that would be too easy.

Michael,

Do you realize the more you write the more PR the book gets? Inadvertently, Fortune turned a bad PR for themselves into a good PR for the publishers. I am sure the publishers are celebrating right now ;)

idiots at work!

Unless there are contractual reasons why you can't cancel those events, you should consider it.
You should inform the publisher of your intent to cancel the events unless you get a very rapid apology.

Assumptions don't fly here, especially when the escalation is to such a shocking level. Fortune should have been explicit about do's and don'ts, if they were so particular of their stance.

Dead tree Media… Dead!

There is a reason they didn't ask you.

Yeah you can link to my site as many times as you'd like. Though I can't guarantee I won't call super late at night if I'm drunk and want to talk shit about PR companies, I won't ever send you a C&D after printing content of mine…
http://www.gotopublicschool.com

Its just sad for David that he's the name at the middle of it all… but I'd follow Brian above and say Fuck em and not promote that book any further if only to make a point to others.

I would not put it past old media to lock and load you into this early support knowing full well they'll be asking you to take it down… but whichever reason… fuck em. They are just doing bad business.

it is brilliant marketing cause the last place you would want to end up is in court with him.. you would have all the top blogs reporting on it… probably put it on ustream. I liked the article he wrote about the book. Reading it made me want to buy it. A quote wouldn't of done that at all.

the truth is stranger than fiction…again

FORTUNE editors – lazy ungrateful bums. Gotta love techcrunch & arrington !

Are they kidding?? What a bunch of morons. I'll be sure to NOT buy that book now!

Good analysis of the game. But, I Tech Crunch is honest in this.

Misunderstandings happen, and sensible people discuss and resolve misunderstandings. The point here is that creating and escalating tensions like this is not acceptable, and Fortune will be blamed for this.

Who wants to read a book about Facebook anyway? No offense. I think Kirkpactrick is quality. But really,http://www.facebook.com/ – There. You read about Facebook.

Great post.

I never thought a company like Fortune could be made up with a bunch of fools. The Book got free publicity and was made known to a targeted audience who could be potentially be the majority of the buyers. After all that they try to sue you ?! As long as you have the written record from those jerks they cant sue you just like that. The best lesson would be to boycott the Book and stop all coverage in TC.

Being a big fan of TechCrunch. I would obviously back TC up and absolutely not buy this book. It's ridiculous how low some companies would go.

Mike, if you promise to post two full pages from my upcoming book, if you make the commitment now, I'll start writing tonight!

yes, you're probably right about this – and no, S&S certainly are NOT aware of how it works out here..

+ 1

Maybe he does ;) … then again maybe he doesn't care at this point.

hmm.. didn't Paul Carr already do this? ;)

You need a policy. Something along the lines of "If you ask me to do you a favor, any complaint wrt said favor will be ignored unless accompanied by $500. Each attempt at contact containing a complaint will be deemed a separate complaint. This $500 is a non-refundable complaint receipt fee and no complaint will be acted on until after the fees for all complaint attempts by the complaining party or surrogates has been paid."

It wouldn't be a problem, if fortune had the rights to publish AND give 3rd parties the right to publish the excerpts as well, but S&S probably didn't give them the latter. Someone there screwed up and then his boss screwed up again by first threatening MA instead of asking him nicely ;).

isn't there a (micropayment) app for that? ;)

You agreed to an embargo? Thought TC didn't do embargoes no more, cause you always end up getting them phone calls at 6 am. :)

I was considering buying the book on the basis that Kirkpatrick seemed fairly human and deserved to see a small % of my book's price after all the work he'd put in.

Calling in the lawyers now, when the book sales aren't hurt is ridiculous. This possible infringement is on the magazine website's rights to excerpts from a book … Kirkpatrick ought to rethink whether fortune has his best interests in mind.

If Fortune didn't want the whole excerpts posted so they could drive traffic (& revenue) on their website's copy of the excerpts then they should have said so explicitly instead of leaving the lawyers to argue over wording & interpretation. Because of this, I'm going to not purchase the book unless TechCrunch is put in the clear. That's not because I'm interpreting the wording of Fortune's messages or if infringement occurred, but because Michael's intent appeared to be in the best-interest of Kirkpatrick.

I love it when you get pissed off at stupid shit like this and put people in their place. These are my favorite TC posts.

Fortune can suck a phatty, as far as I'm concerned. You did nothing but help promote them and this book. Fucking dinosaurs.

Classic stuff! Top work on outing these imbeciles. The dinosaurs are not yet extinct!

Yeah, maybe, but they should have been extremely clear about that if that's what they wanted. Re-reading, it does sound like *perhaps* that's what they are *suggesting* (post "about" the excerpts), but it is very grey area if you ask me.

Either way, this is obviously nothing but promotion for everyone involved (Fortune, the book, the author, the publisher). If they don't recognize that, they're just dumb.

+1

This is pure entertainment.

In the long-run we are all dead.

The two excerpts (in full length) got me to pre-order it.
Deal done.

In case they (S&S) really start the lawyer stuff, I will send them back my copy with a special notice.

Cheers!

What's really rich is that they don't have a valid copyright claim here. Reporting is traditionally protected as fair use under the law, and taking a few excerpts in a way that not only does not harm sales of the book but promotes them (especially since it didn't take from Fortune's exclusive) means that any lawsuit would get nowhere.

I'm just a law student and obviously can't give real legal advice, but just let Simon & Schuster waste money on expensive attorneys. They can have fun with that.

Streisand Effect x1.4 million.

It certainly sounds as though Fortune and or S&S didn't quite make it clear as to what was expected.

It would have been as simple as someone giving TC the quotes they wanted published *and* the excerpts to be reviewed. If the explanation wasn't that specific, then someone was relying on how TC interpreted the email. That's a bad place to be.

After all, if you want to avoid "copy write" infractions, give the reviewer the "write" copy to write about.

I'm a long time subscriber to Fortune but Michael is absolutely right in this case.

[...] Post archived from http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/13/youre-welcome-you-bastards [...]

hahahha … so now next come the apologies.. those idiots…

+2

Team Arrington here

Wondering if this book got more publicity due to this post. Wondering if Michael and David know this…

wow absurd… Fortune needs to get a grip!

Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that what the PR person was saying was this"

"We have this great excerpt of a book tomorrow, which we have the exclusive rights to. Would you be interesting in helping us pimp our exclusive by writing one of your l'il "posts" and linking prominently to our exclusive excerpt of the book we didn't write?"

So, Mike's mistake, but Fortune and S&S's idiocy. And, to drive home the point others have made, this is the first I've heard of the book and, now, I'm interested.

that's ok. I still like David.

Good point. Looks like a typical miscommunication of the word "post." If people would use blogging terminology accurately, well… could have changed the whole story. "Post on" doesn't even make any sense unless he meant post it "on" your blog or had said specifically "write a post 'on' the excerpts." The latter would be the more accurate way to say it. In my opinion, perhaps they should fire their PR guy??

That's one of the only major downsides of this whole blogging+social media revolution. Bad grammar = major errors.

michael fuck that.. cancel anything with their book until they come crawling back on their knees.!!!

Don't countersue… Just post every legal motion they file on here. Let those idiots keep digging themselves deeper in bad PR

How is this going to hurt Fortune or the boook? Nobody in the real world reads TechCrunch.

Pure gold, please keep us posted on this.

Funny thing is I only pre-ordered the book because of reading the excerpts on your post.

Definitely not buying that book. There's enough crazy in the world without adding some more.

Fortune = FAIL. I have already removed the book from my Amazon wishlist. TechCrunch is the ONLY reason I came across the book.

Um, I don't see how you can not understand the basics of copyright – especially if you are in the business of excerpting or lifting copyrighted material. S&S were entirely within their rights. You were not doing anyone a favor. I really think you should take copyright 101 before you incite a riot (or ahem libel a magazine or book publisher for protecting its rights).

I agree that the PR people were ignorant a-holes in how they responded – but at the same time, I think a reasonable person with experience doing this could have figured out that if you post "exclusive" excerpts in their entirety that are supposed to be "exclusive" to another site, then they no longer are "exclusive," are they? I would have at least questioned them about it.

and then have everyone send the author the price for the whole book, and have it all go to his pocket bypassing S&S.

I will NOT buy the book. They are far too STUPID to deserve my money!

Am canc my Fortune subscription and will boycott the book

Typical behavior for old media, especially Simon and Scheister. Might have been an interesting read but now I'll look at it, and the publisher, and think "nah, better to spend my money on someone who actually knows how to handle the subjects they're publishing about"

I pre-ordered the book based on your post. What a shame.

Props for calling the old crotchety media "Dead Tree" — They really love that.

Fortune- you madafucker….

Seems clear. The publisher pulled on Fortune's coattails and they realized they made a mistake in offering you the content. If the publisher had given the content freely to Fortune with knowledge of what they were doing with it you'd be in the clear. The publisher Simon and Schuster should be suing Fortune.

[...] Read this entire piece for a taste of the soon-to-be-history file. [...]

As one-sided as this story is, you've still managed to expose yourself as completely oblivious of Fortune's intent. They made it crystal clear in their very first email that it was an EXCLUSIVE excerpt.

"I don’t think it was unreasonable for me to assume that Fortune wanted me to do exactly what they asked me to do, print the excerpts with links back to them."

Where did they "exactly" ask you to print the excerpts in their entirety? Is it the following?

"please let me know if you choose not to post on one and not the other or both"

Doesn't sound like it to me…

the excerpts were great. it made me pre-order the book on amazon… and i never buy hardcovers. i don't think an excerpt of an excerpt would have convinced me though. the people at FORTUNE (who i gather type LIKE THIS) are idiots. screw their "copy write".

i'm sure kirkpatrick is embarrassed. and it's too bad you gotta take it out on him. but you should. cancel all his shit. just like i'm about to cancel my pre-order on amazon. i'll download a pdf of it someday down the road instead.

Mike-

I read my Fortune when it comes in the mail and check out the fortune site once or twice a week. But I check Techcrunch daily. After reading your post on this book- I was highly excited about not only the way the book excerpts were written but also your take on the book.

Wonderful for sales.

But in addition to this I also went to the fortune site THAT day- and ran across several other articles and slide shows that I really enjoyed.

Now they are screwing the pooch- I am less inclined to actually BUY THE BOOK but I am also less inclined to head over to the Fortune site.

Dear S&S and TW– TC was actually SENDING you traffic and MAKING YOU MONEY.

Silly,

Joshua H. Bolin

These guys are douche bags and deserve to get killed in the new media wave. I canceled my pre-order of the book, they don't deserve my money.

Fortune PR people is just a complete moron. They just ruined the publicity for Kirjpatrick's new book. Typical old media behavior.

Mike, I would love to read your book about the hit and miss on the Tech Startups and some lesson learn and tips for successful start-up. Any plan to write this kind of book?

+1

That's what I was thinking.

Fortune doesn't give a shit about the book. They want ad impressions on their site. That's why they are pissed. Since Michael printed the entire excerpts, there was no reason for readers to click through to Fortune.com. They wanted something like this:

[two tantalizing sentences]…click here to read the rest of the excerpt on Fortune.com!

looking fwd to not buying the book now and getting it on bit torrent.

Will not renew my Fortune magazine subscription when it expires.

Good story as usual Michael. Keep 'em coming!

who needs to read these sob stories of how you were wronged. get over it

I'll be exhibiting at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference and I wholeheartedly support you pulling Kirkpatrick from speaking about his book, that'll teach his publishers a lesson!

As someone that writes book and magazines reviews for high profile publication I can say that it is CLEAR you are not allowed to post the entire thing – you need a new job, idiot. You make all of us professionals look bad.

This made my whole day infuriated. You, helping people you thought you are helping then with a flick of a coin, they turn their backs on you… Worst? They are even threatening you over a lawsuit.

I say, give them something to drink! — I guess, lawsuit charge is everywhere nowadays even on news media.

Posted.

This made my whole day infuriated. You, helping people you thought you are helping then with a flick of a coin, they turn their backs on you… Worst? They are even threatening you over a lawsuit.

I say, give them something to drink! — I guess, lawsuit charge is everywhere nowadays even on news media.

[...] You’re Welcome, You BastardsMichael Arrington has a new feud. This time, a magazine asked TechCrunch to post excerpts. Only later did they clarify they meant excerpts of excerpts. Oh and Simon Schuster sent a cease and desist letter. So much wrong here, so sorry for the author. [...]

[...] You’re Welcome, You BastardsMichael Arrington has a new feud. This time, a magazine asked TechCrunch to post excerpts. Only later did they clarify they meant excerpts of excerpts. Oh and Simon Schuster sent a cease and desist letter. So much wrong here, so sorry for the author. [...]

Arrington. I just got off the phone with Simon and Schuster. They said Obama wants to have a beer with you in the Rose Garden.

Hi ! Michael,

Two thumbs up.

Hi ! Michael,

Two thumbs up. Wonder what the publishers (both) were thinking…

same here

[...] Read this post for some insight why old, dead tree media is dying. Basically the summary is that Fortune asked Arrington to publish a post giving some book (which I won’t be naming here) some publicity, they even sent him some excerpts to use. Arrington obliges, posts a rave review, the excerpts he was sent and prominent links not only to Fortune’s site but to directly buy the book. [...]

Would like to hear both sides of the story though

Hah, me too! –One would've hoped a writer, of all people, at a publication as reputable as Fortune, should've known the proper word is 'copywrite'….

"Fortune then called me three times between 6 am and 7:30 am. I woke up each time and thought “Who’s the jerk calling me in the middle of the night?” "

LOL @ middle of the night

Whammy!

What a bunch of idiots! I wonder how many pre-sale book orders they got from your post? I can tell you that I ordered it after reading your post. Thanks Arrington!

=== popurls.com === popular today…

yeah! this story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…

I'll just up and say it, I just pre-ordered the book after reading the incredibly compelling full excerpts. THIS IS HOW THE FUCKING WORLD WORKS, YOU JACKASS PUBLISHERS.

God. I didn't even want to support them after reading this thread, but the writing sells itself in spite of the very best efforts of their publishers.

Is this true, Mike? I know you have your share of detractors, but this whole episode seems too much of a stretch :) This seems to be good fodder for my next blog post – "How to deal with old media dinosaurs?". :)

You know what? I'm making sure not to buy this book and I'll post on Facebook about it.

Shame on fortune ! Unbelievable !

You need to tell me the ending before I buy a book

"this stuff is solid gold"… indeed !

"And if you don’t mind, once you’ve read the excerpts, please let me know if you choose not to post on one and not the other or both, which of course we would love."

I think this is pretty clear that they wanted you to post your views/comments on one or both excerpts. Nowhere it said post one or both excerpts.

Mikey – seems like you are the one who fucked up!

I was going to buy the book as well. Not happening now.

bingo — and the cover-your-ass and blame the peon blogger tactic backfired. Yea!

Yeah, but you didn't go to Fortune to read, which is what pissed them off.

This is a fascinating story. The stupidity of the publisher is beyond description. As with others, I'd read the post and would have liked to read more. In fairness, I'll probably succumb and buy the book, but this is no reflection on the behavior of the publisher – more because it looks like a good read and the author didn't cause any of this! G'Luck with whatever happens next!

This is really crazy but it is not surprising. I was reading that article when you posted and when I read your sentence that it is a "solid gold" I thought how big favorur you gave to them with just that sentence, not to mention the whole text.

Because of your integrity, willingness to stand up for your and right of the whole blog industry and new media publishing in general, you made TC and you as the most trusted source for tech news in the world.

Respect!

TechCrunch 500 FTW

Cancel the disrupt talk, put more start ups to battle!

The douchebag copyright lawyer is just doing his job so he doesn't get fired for not catching the issue. They aren't the ones who make the calls. No need to bash a whole profession.

Agreed! Arrington is the man!

Appreciate the exposure to the idiocy Michael and can only say that this is exactly why dead tree media is dying a tortuous death…

You sir, handled that masterfully. Let me know if you're ever in Oregon, I will buy you a drink.

Enter text right here!That was the most passive-agressive rant I've ever heard.

Arrington continues to be the biggest douchbag in the industry

[...] You’re Welcome, You Bastards(TechCrunch) – It’s no secret that Michael Arrington is not fond of PR people, but he has a legitimate beef here. In short, he was threatened with legal action if he didn’t take down two book excerpts that he was given. (He even honored the embargo!) If you read the e-mail, there are many things less confusing than the wording. Regardless, they asked him to take it down, ignoring the massive amount of publicity he drove. [...]

This is so much more entertaining than another story about Zuck dropping f-bombs in old IMs. Thanks Michael!

That was an insane thing for Fortune to do. When our Shrink Rap book comes out next year, I only HOPE we could get linked excerpts on such valuable websites at TechCrunch. I just don't get it.

Wait, hate to be the lone voice of dissent here, but, Michael is being obtuse—purposely or not, I can't say. But here's why:

FORTUNE could care less whether the book sells. FORTUNE purchased the right to excerpt the book because it believed it would sell more copies of FORTUNE. That's why magazines and newspapers buy book excerpts, right? FORTUNE wants to sell more issues of FORTUNE. Duh.

So, when Techcrunch steals an entire article that FORTUNE paid $$$$ for, tell me why FORTUNE should be thrilled to get a link back? A link back to… WHAT? You stole the entire thing! It's like taking all the cookies and pointing to the empty jar. Thanks a lot, dude.

The link economy works when FAIR USE is involved. Michael, you're an attorney, right? Don't need to explain to you what a fair excerpt (of an excerpt) is.) Posting the entire thing is not fair use. It's theft. This is not rocket science.

If you're a pro writer, you'd know to use the relative pronoun 'who' rather than it's restrictive variant "that."

As someone *who* writes….

An 'excerpt of excerpts'? Good grief. The PR guy at Fortune messed up big time. He should have made it excruciatingly clear exactly what he expected TC to do. As in 'you can only take verbatim a sentence or two.' But he didn't do that since he knew TC would say 'F that, we'll pass, thank you.' The PR knew damned well TC would publish the full excerpts. What he didn't count on was S&S coming down on his head like a brick sh*t house. So he went into full panic mode and tried to make TC the heavy. BTW I didn't even realize Fortune was still published. Wonder who subscribes to it.

Someone should make a poster "I'm with Arrington" I would totally buy that!

Don't boycott the book, boycott Fortune and the publisher. This doesn't appear to be Kirkpatrick's doing.

Poor Michael. I'm a big fan, but you sound like an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. (I should know, I suffer from this, too.) You sound petulant. You sound like you're mad that you still occasionally don't get a seat at the big-boy table. "They DARED call me repeatedly while I was asleep!" Waaaa. Sure, Fortune is wrong, but you sound undignified. Call your attorneys, post the facts and stop whining, for heaven's sake.

There's no right or wrong here on Arrington's part. To even imply that TC could remotely be in the wrong here is ridiculous. Curious what Kirkpatrick thinks about all this.

Old media needs a serious stack refresh. Last year my company Xmarks was awarded two separate "Editors Choice" awards from well known print magazines. Both times we blogged about receiving an award, using the magazine's award graphic and linking to their site, we received legal calls saying we were violating the magazine's copyright and needed to pay big $ reprint license fees to use the award graphic. They really don't understand the value of content sharing and linking on the Web to promote your brand and your content.

Arrington, you are a madman! LOL. Great job.

Corporate American never ceases to amaze me. They trip over a dollar to grab a quarter. Those idiots let them spend $ on their lawyers they deserve each other. I do have a question, what is David Kirkpatrick doing throughout this fiasco? You have my vote Michael.

I declined on the grounds that I was pissed off – Best reason – EVER! I loved this post.

Read more:http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/13/youre-welcome-yo...

michael – not surprising. Forbes did the same thing to us. We put their logo on our press page with a link to an article they wrote about our start-up. Next thing I know, I get a call from them asking for $25K for the right to use their logo.

Wouldn't "post on" be the blogging equivalent of doing a "story on" something to a journalist?

And I wonder what Michael's response would have been had the initial email come back and said "Michael, I'm sorry but I didn't have permission from the publisher to have you include the entire excerpt and I'm kind of in deep shit over this. Could you do me a huge favor and make the following edits? [Text reduced down to an appropriate amount] Thanks!"

In spite of Fortune, I'm making it a point to read every word of the excerpts that TC posted.

What about the no embargo policy?

Why not cancel your subscription now?

I dunno – i think this was more drama than it needed to be.

This is why the publishing business is not doing that well these days and why so many authors are now choosing to self publish.

Without knowing more than what's in the post, it seems like this is an internal squeeze play, brought on (and exacerbated) by miscommunication.

1) Fortune PR contact offers the world, in case somebody bites. 2) Somebody bites. 3) Jubilation at Fortune. 4) Right up until the publisher calls and tells Fortune to make things right. 4) Freakout. 5) Start torching relationships and making this a bigger thing than it ever would have been otherwise. 6) Praise for the guilty and persecution of the innocent.

Countersue for waking him up in the middle of the night. Hey NY publishing, it's not 9am everywhere in the world!

Whatever, Arrington. Some low level person at Fortune f'd up–clear and simple And when the low level person couldn't clean up their own mess, the higher level person got involved and threw some muscle around–because that's what high level people do–regardless of how dumb or smart (Jobs, Ellison) they are. Despite Michael being some darn smart, I surprised he did not pick up on that. Of course, all these problems were exacerbated by the time zone, and Michael's bed time and awakening time. Another point Michael chose to ignore, or could not process (where's the smartness now?). If Michael, were so smart, he'd have the low level person at Fortune fix the mess, and then just repost the amended version. Instead he likes to show off how smart he is. Regardless, of how smart you are, your effectiveness is ultimately determined by how you deal with other people (both dumber and smarter than you).

I won't be buying this book now, no matter how much I like the author. What idiots.

Technology replaced workers. Those workers either have to be retrained and go on the dole. Technology is now replacing 'dead tree media'. Just like the millions who have lost their middle class jobs to automation.

Problem? Just like those middle class scum (*sarcasm), these boys and girls are afraid of losing their million dollar paychecks to automation and innovation. And they are scared. See what happens when Joe and Jane average lose their jobs? Nothing. Now, when it is million dollar paychecks that are being lost… well, only then does it matter.

F*cking scum. They didn't care as long as it was not them. Now, it is their turn.

Actually after reading these comments it seems like lots of people who were going to buy the book are now not planning on it anymore. I sorta feel bad for Kirkpatrick. If this story goes on any longer, though, I bet you'll turn out to be right.

Dead tree Media

HAH!

What is Kirkpatrick saying? I hope he's telling them to hush.

[...] on TechCrunch, there’s a new-media old-media throw-down involving the website and both Fortune magazine and Simon & Schuster. In a nutshell, Fortune [...]

Ah,this situation is a perfect example of the O'MOOT (Old Media's Out Of Touch) effect !

Incompetence. On their part.

[...] David Kirkpatrick’s forthcoming book, The Facebook Effect , on TechCrunch (see whole article here).  According to Arrington and based on the emails included in the story, it appears as if they are [...]

Didn't read all 246 comments, so excuse me if this has been said already:

In a couple of months, 6 at most, any book about Facebook is going to be ancient history. That's assuming the book under discussion isn't already outdated, considering the developments since December. Maybe Kirkpatrick should withdraw it from publication and write "The Rise and Fall of Zuckerberg" instead.

I recommend this for everyone's reading pleasure: Danah Boyd "Facebook and 'radical transparency'" -http://bit.ly/9OHqnq

Dude, Michael, they asked you nicely. I don't buy the whole "i won't do excerpt of excerpts because it'd take too much time and I'm pissed about being called in the morning". Too long to find excerpts? Early morning phone call? Really? Not saying you shouldn't fight them on this, but it's clear your problems with Fortune are much deeper than inconvenience.

The book is *already* available as a torrent. Who buys this shit anymore?

"Scott H

Lesson #1 of doing favors, ask yourself, "How much is this favor going to cost me?" That also applies to someone wanting to do you a favor, it seems.

Nailed it!

You are in the right Arrington…. What a bunch of ungrateful bastards!!!

dear fortune. sometimes I forget how a doofus acts. thanks for bringing it all back

More for Fortune, than the Book publisher, I guess. TC has arranged for awesome publicity for the book, and they threaten with a lawsuit? Ungrateful Bastards.

Thats old media for you my friend. They still live in their imaginary world, where they are all powerful. Thanks god for the Internet – its the greatest leveler! :)

Fuck you fortune, you momdafuckcas

I’ll be getting the book on bittorrent now.

I was going this weekend to order it, but no need anymore. Dickheads

Great article and well done for not taking their shit. I just might buy te book, ask for a gift receipt and return it after having read it and send a few $$ to the author’s paypal account instead.

I was going to buy this book when I saw it on TC. Was very excited! Not buying it anymore.. I’ll probably download it for free now. (Illegally)

Agreed. I won’t be buying the book, even though I was looking forward to it after reading the excerpts.

Hopefully a PDF will turn up on pirate bay.

Idiots.

TechCrunch,
You bungled. The second email from Fortune says clearly that you should be “post[ing] on” the excerpts, not posting the excerpts themselves. Your lawyers will hopefully point this out as well, before this goes too far.

Your misunderstanding.
You’re not acting professionally responding like this IMO.

Book recommend from TC? I could go for that. Fecking eejits.

Good one.

Fortune you retards! Nowhere did you say excerpts of excerpts. You, Fortune, just lost another reader due to your stupidity not to mention your rude and obnoxious methods to try to get your way.

Just finished reading this book… Looooooooooooved it / Clasili.com

UnFORTUN(E)ately, this backfired on them. I’d like to hear their take, but I can’t imagine it being as enthralling as yours. Great article content and well written.

That’s a glorious story. Simply perfect.

What numbskull hires someone that spells copyright as “copy write”? Well at least Simon and Schuster’s employee knew how to spell it correctly.

I say boycott Fortune if you want to boycott someone.So buy the book if you planned to do so. The author doesn’t appear involved in this feud. They really did a bad job of being specific. Seems like a journalism outfit should be better at specifics.

In my view, the issue isn't about old school vs new school, or right vs wrong in terms of misunderstanding copywrights, it is TechCrunch's less-than-professional response to a business situation that he should have understood, if he is to continue in this business. So what if he was confused by someone's earlier email? Confusion happens, and mistakes get made. How you respond to such situations tells more about your professionalism, and writing a blog complaining about how he was treated is soooo immature. This is worse than grade schoool behavior.

Fortune died about 6 years ago. Nobody reads magazines any more, or their lousy website clones.

Posting the entire excerpts is fantastic for the book.. made for a great late night read.. and I'll definitely buy the book. I guess fortune just wants the pageviews all to themselves? To be honest, I wouldn't have clicked through to read them on fortune.com if that's what they expected, but since they are here, they have another buyer!

I have been a Fortune subscriber for 5 years. The issues have been getting slimmer every year but I've always enjoyed the well edited articles and believe in the product. The way Fortune has dealt with this matter says a lot about its management culture. Not the writers… the administrators trying to keep the ship afloat. The management at Fortune needs to be shaken up. I'm voting by canceling my subscription. Hit thumbs up if you're a Fortune subscriber and will cancel your subscription.

This is awesome. Tell 'em to eat sh*t, Arrington. :D

hey 'just passing' what department of Fortune do you work for? hmmmmmm

If this whole issue was so important and sensitive, maybe Fortune could have taken a moment to call and talk over the “excerpt of excerpt” strategy (although they likely had not thought of it at first anyway.) Do phone calls over these issues ever still happen?

Really, just asking, but what was so unclear about the first email that is mentioned in the article. It clearly says "post on" the excerpts, not "post the excerpts." Furthermore, since it was mentioned that they were Fortune-exclusive, I do not see where the misunderstanding could stem from.

Yes, that second email, thanking Michael for his great post was a mistake, but I guess that happened because the post wasn't really read thoroughly but just skimmed over. Still, I see no indication whatsoever that Fortune is at fault here. Seriously, I don't.

Thanks for the post; now I know how to ask you for a favor — call you mid-morning!

Sounds like a good book too bad I'm not going to buy it now.

Yeah… as someone who works in marketing/PR… that's definitely on Fortune, not you. I've learned the hard way myself that if you want something specific, you have to be specific. and if I'm not specific enough in my instructions (and from those communications, Fortune certainly doesn't look like they were) then that's my own fault. And yet, to make matters worse, instead of owning the fuck-up and trying to mitigate it however they could, they went the extra-douchey route of lying and hiding behind corporate lawyers… over an excerpt. Maybe someone needs to go back to the discitonary and look up exactly what "Public relations" means.

This is how they lose dolars by counting cents. Obviously they don't make sense and should choose their battles more wisely especially since you did them such a huge favor. Well what good will it be to hold on to content if you are going obsolete? They could learn a thing or two from the dinosaur

+1

Hooray for some reason here.

Not worried about the demise of "dead tree media" as long as bloggers and other non journalists can't tell the difference between reporting on a story and reprinting it.

Or were you just upset that you didn't get the exclusive?

Either way, your response, and this new trend of "if I don't get my way, I'll print the emails" underscores the immaturity and unprofessionalism of your average blogger. Welcome to mediocrity. Real news, and real journalists have nothing to fear from your barely better than tabloid style 'reporting.'

Организация праздников в Мариуполе. В наши услуги входят: тамада, ведущий, целая команда КВН, лучшие вокалистки!

У нас самые низкие цены в городе!

Terribly managed PR effort by Fortune, but cut the lowly account exec some slack, he/she obviously was poorly directed by superiors and is just the messenger.

Hi Michael,
My new book "The TechCrunch Effect" will be published soon.
Should I send you the excerpt directly?
Guess what, I don't mind you publishing the whole excerpt. Actually, I don't mind at all, you publishing all the book ;)
LOL

yeah, i'm in promotions and you always lay everything out very clearly so that there are no mistakes. i always repeat myself and make bullet points if there is sensitive material. these guys didn't spell it out, so everything here is 100% their fault. ridiculous.

Sounds to me like you, Michael, are a bit of a haughty tw@t.

Sounds like someone messed up and tried blaming you guys. Sad, really.

hi hello! Wellcome to <a

Смотрите что нашел в инете, вообщем задался вопросом ремонта в квартире

и естественно поиском компаний которые этим занимаются, но даже

представить себе не мог что бывает такая мебель :) вообщем что

говорить смотрите сами и офигивайте.

I can see how they never explicitly said to publish the entire excerpt but also failed to explicitly say don't do full excerpts:
"please let me know if you choose not to post on one and not the other or both"

where the word "ON" of "on one or not" could maybe be implied that maybe he just wanted a story on the publication of the excerpts but not the whole excerpts.

However of course this "Hi Michael, thank you so much for doing such a great post this morning." blows all that out of the water.

"Both the excerpts are attached." – says it all.

OK that's them. Now to me. Please excerpt my latest blog post, 'Bluebells At War' which is athttp://quillcards.com/blog/index.php/2010/05/21/b... and link back, preferably a link in a permanent position high up on your homepage.

Provided the attendant text is positive and friendly, I waive the right to come back later and ask you to take it down.

Just call me a Fortune hunter.

I'm not a Fortune subscriber…and I'm not at all likely to be after reading this.

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This is way too confusing!

You guys are right. Fortune really fooked themselves on this one!

Too much panic!

I agree!, however it is there content and if they wish to keep it locked in chest and only sell a few tickets that is their choice, I would place blame on the employee communicating with Michael. The law by default will lean toward the publisher, though I would think the email and voice communication would be defined as a contract, so unless the publishers have something signed by TC stating other specific terms, I wish them the best of luck, sadly the free press they will get is most likely to be very negative.

I do not buy many books, though I do follow the dead tree publishers inability to understand and adapt to the new models. Depending on post release reviews I may have purchased an online (or the book if it comes with data file copy) most likely because name recognition gain from TechCrunch I do not know David Kirkpatrick from any other place than here! Regardless if I bought the book, if I like the review of the book I have in the past caused the influence of a title selection with colleges that buy many paper books.

Let's hope Kirkpatrick retained the online rights or not forever with Simon & Schuster. When publishers do things like this, at the very least I remember and use it as an example for others as I retell the story, worst case would be getting my own copy and mailing Kirkpatrick $10 directly, it's probably more than he gets from the publisher, lucky for them my parents raised me to know two wrongs do not make a right.

To Simon & Schuster I say, get a clue and good luck.

Dave

Why are they being such bunch of assholes??? UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!