Homer in Xinhua copyright bust
p2pnet news | off topic:- Xinhua is the China state news service and, “Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited,” warns its copyright notice the bottom of posts.
Apparently, though, copyrights don’t apply to the agency itself.
“U.S. and European researchers reported Sunday to have located two genes that appear to increase the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) – a debilitating degenerative disease,” says a Xinhua story.
It had an x-ray to go with it but, ‘had’ is the operative word.
The x-ray in question was a straight lift from, unbelievably, The Simpsons. And it was even slugged File Photo, points out The Raw Feed.
Says Computerworld:
This isn’t the first time Chinese media has fallen prey to satire presented to an English-language audience. In 2002, the Beijing Evening News (Beijing Wan Bao) picked up an article from humor site The Onion, stating that the U.S. Congress had threatened to move out of the Capitol building in Washington unless the building were upgraded to include a retractable dome. The newspaper also ran a drawing The Onion had published of the fictional new roof design.
Both online and print media in China routinely use photos downloaded or scanned from other sources without proper attribution or copyright permission.
The Homer x-ray has now been removed from the story.
Click on the microphone on the right to hear this story. 
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Also See:
The Raw Feed – Chinese Theft o’ the Day: Homer Simpson X-Ray, August 2, 2007
Computerworld – D’oh! Homer ‘photo’ exposes Chinese media piracy, August 2, 2007
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August 3rd, 2007 at 11:05 am
maybe Andrea from Socan mailed them that the circled brain was a too close resemblance to their logo because of
26.1.1 Circles
26.1.5 More than two circles or ellipses, inside one another, spirals
and they took the picture down after that?!
August 3rd, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Alright, this is ri-goddamn-diculous.
August 5th, 2007 at 8:45 am
was the image copyrighted in china as us copyright is irrelevant?
August 5th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
That is fucking hilarious.