17-08-10, 11:06 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2009
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Associated Press 'pulls out of lolcat site deal'
Oh noes!
Associated Press 'pulls out of lolcat site deal' - Telegraph
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Quote:
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The respected US news and picture agency was in negotiations to provide images to the company behind I Can Has Cheezburger? (ICHC)
The popular blog features photos of cats annotated with amusing captions submitted by members of the public. From humble origins, the site now employs more than 40 people and boasts millions of regular users.
Lolcats, as pictures are known, are so ubiquitous on the web that they have spawned their own language, “lolspeak”, a cutesy, ungrammatical imitation of how cats might talk.
According to the Los Angeles Times technology blog, Associated Press has been in lengthy negotiations allow its photos of celebrities and politicians to be given the lolcat treatment.
The images would have been made available to fans of ICHC’s sister sites Pundit Kitchen and Rofl Razzi, which allow users to test their captioning skills on current affairs photos rather than amateur pictures of cats.
But Associated Press has now pulled out of talks, apparently after having second thoughts about letting the general public take irreverent liberties with their photojournalism.
Bur Hur, chief executive of Pet Holdings, which owns all the sites in the ICHC stable, told the LA Times: "They felt that allowing the unwashed masses to [alter image captions] would be against their journalistic integrity."
Associated Press has been providing reports to American newspapers, radio stations and television networks on a subscription basis since it was founded in 1846.
But the rise of online news consumption has forced the agency to look for new digital revenue streams, and clamp down on unpaid use of its content. Last year it threatened to sue bloggers and aggregators who copy lengthy chunks of its articles.
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