Bad Art Friend

[Anonymous]

This whole screenshot thing is STUPID and it should be over but Brennan not attributing or saying hey I made a dumb mistake I’m sorry if drawing it out and she should fix it so focus stays on the real problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry but I think people are conflating Brennan with other bad actors in this story, unfairly. Brennan has been one of the people (and “blue check marks”) speaking out against what Larson and others did from early on. Kidneygate came out guns blazing, accusing her of several things she had not done and threatening to “put her on blast.”

Brennan is someone who is always kind, thoughtful, and generous on social media. Her work is heavily researched and she is a skilled and talented writer. I think kidneygate got caught up in the plagiarism of it all and came at Brennan with lots of demands, incorrect accusations, and no effort to understand what had happened. Kidneygate has around 3k followers. There is absolutely no reason to assume Brennan had even seen the account or that it was where she got these screenshots.

Don’t indict Brennan because if your anger at others. She is one of the good guys.

Sounds like you are Brennan’s friend and have a blind spot here TBH.

I don’t know her and have never even read any of her books, but I follow her on Twitter and over the summer subscribed to a series she did on “women of the night” in Paris. I think kidneygate is being really harsh and severely overreacting, and I think the writing in Brennan’s post is 100% original, whereas kidneygate accused her of stealing their work. This was false.

She also didn’t stealth replace the images. After kidneygate challenged her, she put up a separate post explaining her sourcing and replaced the screenshots with her own to make it clear and avoid further conflict.

Screenshotting a public work is not a copywritable act.

DP. Nobody is arguing here about whether the images were copyrightable* or not, and also you are conflating the writing with the supporting images. The question is lack of attribution of identical images, which is a matter of professionalism that goes beyond copyright. You keep talking about "the writing" but everyone else here is talking about the images, and those are different things. Or are you saying that Summer Brennan was the original creator of all the images that originally appeared in her work and that those images weren't pixel identical to the images kidneygate created?

I guess that is the key question: do you think Brennan created the images she used to support her arguments in her essays? And if not, are you saying Brennan was right to use them without attribution?

* Also, you are wrong about screenshotting a public work. It isn't clear that the subject of the images is a public work. Also, it isn't totally clear cut that the results of kidneygate's labor in assembling, Photoshopping, highlighting, etc. (the images) aren't actually copyrightable. But it doesn't matter because this is so small scale. The question of copyright is academic, in other words.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole screenshot thing is STUPID and it should be over but Brennan not attributing or saying hey I made a dumb mistake I’m sorry if drawing it out and she should fix it so focus stays on the real problem.

+1

It is foolish of Brennan not to admit a mistake here. Nobody would hold it against her, especially given the circumstances. But the longer she holds out when people can literally see the identical images and the replaced ones, the worse it looks. She could clear this up really easily and offer attribution and a brief apology.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Mediation makes sense.

[Anonymous]

I guess we will never see all the missing discovery that Larson never turned over now. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess we will never see all the missing discovery that Larson never turned over now. Oh well.

Well, it depends on how mediation goes. Both parties have to be willing to settle.

[Anonymous]

Okay, Summer Brennan is starting to move onto my DNR list because she is coming across as so amazingly whiny. Kidneygate posted their full correspondence. It's fine. They have a disagreement. I think kidneygate both overreached and had some valid points, but the correspondence is reasonable overall. But now Brennan is repeatedly posting stuff like this and it is totally ridiculous. What an absurd drama queen. (I will take this all back if it turns out there is more than the correspondence that kidneygate posted, but I doubt there is.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess we will never see all the missing discovery that Larson never turned over now. Oh well.

Well, it depends on how mediation goes. Both parties have to be willing to settle.

Dawn wanted mediation in the beginning but if I were her I'd be asking for more now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, Summer Brennan is starting to move onto my DNR list because she is coming across as so amazingly whiny. Kidneygate posted their full correspondence. It's fine. They have a disagreement. I think kidneygate both overreached and had some valid points, but the correspondence is reasonable overall. But now Brennan is repeatedly posting stuff like this and it is totally ridiculous. What an absurd drama queen. (I will take this all back if it turns out there is more than the correspondence that kidneygate posted, but I doubt there is.)

Is this like how Dawn was obsessed with Sonya?

[Anonymous]

Maybe! I would have expected more grit from Summer, though. What a whiner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess we will never see all the missing discovery that Larson never turned over now. Oh well.

Well, it depends on how mediation goes. Both parties have to be willing to settle.

Dawn wanted mediation in the beginning but if I were her I'd be asking for more now.

Dawn needs the ability to tell her side of the story, and Sonya will want an ironclad confidentiality clause, so I don't know how they navigate that. If I were Dawn, I would be neutral about settlement at this point.

[Anonymous]

I haven't read the thread because originally I just skimmed the story. But, posting to say anyone else that doesn't want to sink in too much time can now listen to it on this Sunday's Daily. You can get the story and a run in at the same time!

Who is Brennan though? Not in the story I just read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read the thread because originally I just skimmed the story. But, posting to say anyone else that doesn't want to sink in too much time can now listen to it on this Sunday's Daily. You can get the story and a run in at the same time!

Who is Brennan though? Not in the story I just read.

I don't want to give Kolker any clicks.

Brennan was not in the original article. Summer Brennan is a writer who wrote a good summary worth reading for the factual analysis (much better than the original article), but in the process used unattributed images that were taken from an account (kidneygate) on Twitter who also did a good factual analysis before Brennan. Kidneygate reached out, partially reasonably, partially unreasonably, and Brennan is now whining excessively about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read the thread because originally I just skimmed the story. But, posting to say anyone else that doesn't want to sink in too much time can now listen to it on this Sunday's Daily. You can get the story and a run in at the same time!

Who is Brennan though? Not in the story I just read.

I don’t trust the NYT to accurately report this story