Academic Advantage Scam ...or not

It's funny how sometimes in an attempt to prevent something from happening, people will actually cause the very thing they were trying to prevent in the first place.

It seems to happen more often on the Internet, but I have seen it in real life, too.

The most recent Internet story is of the tutoring company Academic Advantage who sent a takedown notice to BoingBoing, because the words 'academic', 'advantage', and 'scam' were all on the same page, not necessarily next to each other, and talking about a completely unrelated story to whether or not the tutoring company is a scam. I don't even care if they are or not. If they had read the original story, they'd probably know that it's not talking about them. Even if it was talking about them, if they knew anything about BoingBoing and its readers, they'd know to leave it alone and let it die away quietly instead of bringing more attention to themselves.

The real life example that comes to mind is a few years ago right here in Logan, when a planned PETA protest at the KFC actually ended in a counterprotest. News of PETA's plans attracted one of the largest lunch crowds that store had ever seen. I had considered going down there for lunch that day myself, but couldn't make it because of something else going on. Of course that was before Oprah's free meal fiasco when I ate there so many times over a month or so that I don't think I can step foot in a KFC again.

Breaking News

This just posted on the Salt Lake Tribune website:

The Salt Lake Tribune wants to remind readers that The Tribune’s articles, photographs and other content are protected by the federal Copyright Act, and legally cannot be reproduced elsewhere without written permission from The Tribune.

All content in The Salt Lake Tribune’s print editions and on The Tribune ’s websites, including sltrib.com, is copyright protected.

See the original story for more information. Yes, it's actually a story.

I'm pretty sure if I include the following quotes from the story, it will still be just a little less than half, so will not be considered most of the story and will thus be okay.

The law allows people to quote a small amount of a copyrighted story so as to be able to comment on it, and even criticize it. ... But copyright law does not allow anyone to copy and display most or all of a story, photograph or graphic. To do so is a violation of our copyright and we will use all legal remedies available to address such infringements.

I'm pretty easy to find, Tim, so give me a call if you have any problems.