10 Zen Monkeys

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10 Zen Monkeys is a daily updated Internet publication covering a variety of subjects, including technology and popular culture, politics, internet memes, and controversies. It ranges in tone from hard news to gossip and opinion.

Contents

[edit] History

Former GettingIt.com collaborators R. U. Sirius, Jeff Diehl, and Lou Cabron started publishing 10 Zen Monkeys in September 2006.

[edit] The Gawker Firing

Gawker blogger Nick Douglas wrote gossip about Silicon Valley on Valleywag. After he gave an interview to 10 Zen Monkeys, he was replaced as editor. Public statements by Gawker's Nick Denton announced this was due to a desire to change the site's tone. However, an internal memo surfaced on the New York Times blog DealBook that blamed Douglas's departure on sarcastic comments he'd made in the interview with 10 Zen Monkeys.

[edit] The Crook/EFF Controversy

The site first wrote about Ocean City, New Jersey blogger [Michael Crook] when he mimicked Jason Fortuny's experiment of baiting men on Craigslist by pretending to be a young woman looking for casual sex[1], and then posting their private information on a website, which he ran. The article contained an image of Crook on Fox News Channel. Crook claimed he had rights pertaining to the copyright over his likeness in the image and filed a DMCA takedown notice to have it removed. Diehl saw this as an abuse of the law and an attempt to harass the publication for criticizing Crook, and filed a lawsuit in which he was represented by free speech lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

As the blogosphere picked up the story, Crook continued to serve takedown notices on sites that ran his image in any form, including Boing Boing, Laughing Squid, and even Jason Fortuny. On March 14, 2007 the EFF announced Crook had agreed to their settlement terms, including relinquishing all claims to the image, withdrawing all DMCA notices with a promise not to send more pertaining to the screenshot, and even recording a video apology to the Internet, although noting on his blog that "no settlement can force a sincere, contrite heart". He also noted that because of the settlement, no actual legal precedent was established.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ian Daly. "The Sex Ad was a Setup", IGN, 2007-01. Retrieved on 2007-06-30. 
  2. ^ Michael Crook. "Why'd Ya Settle, Dude?", Michael Crook, 2007-11-08. Retrieved on 2008-04-10. 

[edit] External links