Stefan Mileschin

Worried about copyright issues

Historic photos and stories on websites are being pulled because lawyers fear that they could be targeted by copyright trolls.

For example a Gizmodo reporter who published hands-on pics of the then not yet announced iPhone 4, has seen the picture and story removed. Also gone are pictures from G/O Media sites like The Onion, Jalopnik, and Deadspin (as well as Gizmodo).

A recent Gawker report highlights that Buzzfeed has been wiping many older images from the web. Still, Buzzfeed’s reason for doing so is relatively apparent after management explained the copyright claims on old photos deemed some of them “high-risk”.

The iPhone 4 story might have something else going on. A prototype iPhone 4 ending up in the hands of tech journalists was a huge deal in 2010, and a key element of the moment was the pictures. People got to see the phone’s brand-new design and its internal components before Steve Jobs could even get on stage and announce it. It turned into a fiasco involving the police raiding an editor’s home.

https://fudzilla.com/news/mobile/537...s-to-be-pulled