SCO stories frequently republished on other websites, often drawing ire of critics

"YOU'RE AN IDIOT!!!!"
"You have your head screwed on backwards!"
"You are an enemy of the United States."

These are just three excerpts from the onslaught of rather malicious emails I began receiving in my inbox almost immediately after my story "Americans in the crosshairs" was published on Silver Chips Online (SCO) in Sept. 2004.

Granted, some of the pro-gun rights people who contacted me via email regarding my article, in which I argued that Congress should renew and strengthen the Assault Weapons Ban (AWB), were perfectly civilized. They each stated their opinion on the issue — usually something to the effect of, "The AWB is a completely unconstitutional piece of tyrannical legislation passed by the socialists in Washington" — and requested that I respond to them and clarify my views.

Most of the gun aficionados who wrote to me, however, were the opposite of civil, to say the least. Some compared my ideas to those of Hitler. Others included pro-gun quotations from historical figures. In several emails, writers included an excerpt from Sigmund Freud's "General Introduction to Psychoanalysis," which read, "A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." My personal favorite was a quip from Krusty the Clown: "There are three reasons to own a gun. To protect yourself and your family, to hunt dangerous and delicious animals, and to keep the King of England out of your face." Text from some emails was just too indecent to be printed here.

But the gun-lovers' tirades weren't confined to my inbox. Second-amendment advocates also posted an exorbitant number of comments on the SCO page where the story was located. The article received a whopping 139 comments — more than any other story published up to that point in the school year — in just over two weeks.

This flood of comments got us at SCO wondering how all these people from across the country were drawn to the website of a high school newspaper. After some online snooping and a few Google searches, we discovered that a portion of my article had been republished on a pro-gun rights website, Keep and Bear Arms.

The case of my article being republished on another website without permission is not an isolated incident. SCO's addition to the Google News database in late 2003 drew many Internet users from around the world to the site. As a result of this increased publicity, a number of SCO articles have been reprinted elsewhere on the Internet, often drawing the ire of critics.

"KID IS TAKING A BEATING"

On the "Keep and Bear Arms" website, my article was posted on a forum page by the site's administrator. Directly below the paragraph in which I asserted that Congress made the jobs of terrorists easier by allowing the AWB to expire, the administrator encouraged the sites' readers to contact me via email, writing, "Feel free to set this kid straight with some cold, hard facts." The person then inserted my personal email address for all to see.

When the story was initially posted, I expected to receive a steady flow of emails from gun-rights activists for at least a few days. But I in no way anticipated the onslaught of messages that began arriving in my inbox literally one hour after the article was published. After receiving around 40 emails after two days, I decided enough was enough and removed my email address from my staff page on the SCO site.

The ambush of emails soon began subsiding. One commenter on the gun site realized that I had taken my email address down and wrote, "KID IS TAKING A BEATING, GOOD JOB GUYS. Notice how the link to his personel [sic] email and website are no longer there."

Having lost one avenue of criticizing my views, the gun aficionados turned their attention and effort towards the comment page on the SCO site, where they continued to leave numerous messages totaling thousands of words. Many of these comments asserted that as teenagers, Blair students should leave discussions concerning political matters, such as gun control, to our elders. One woman left a comment reading, "Stick to the acne, the dating girls and homework and leave the Constitution to the adults."

A more recent SCO article entitled "Our cultured president" triggered a similar backlash from gun-control foes, despite the fact that a mere two sentences of the story actually discussed the Assault Weapons Ban. Those two sentences were republished, without permission from the author, on another pro-gun, anti-AWB website, AWBanSunset.com. Along with the brief excerpt, the site administrator included a short squib: "Ok, this is only a high school online publication, but still... this type of nonsense (even if written by a teenager) needs to be answered."

The brief mention of "Our cultured president" on a gun site drew many commenters to the SCO site who directed some spiteful postings at the author. One wrote, "Is this the best that Montgomery High School has to offer? Someone needs to sue for incompetent educators." Another wrote, "If this is an example of your best work, perhaps you should keep your job at McDonalds."

Free Republic

In Feb., a feature by juniors Armin Rosen and Emily-Kate Hannapel, entitled "Seeing green: A vegetarian teaches a meat-eater the hidden joys of tofu," was republished on FreeRepublic.com, an über-internet forum dubbed "a hub of conservative viewpoints" by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and an "ultra-right-wing Internet site" by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The article was, according to Rosen, "written to satirize the dietetic intolerance faced by vegetarian and meat-eater alike."

The article was posted by a member named "SamAdams76." Along with the story, the anonymous user wrote, "This is just a high-school paper but I thought it was pretty funny. Love that picture of the disappointed vegetarian sitting at the Outback. She'll have plenty more opportunities in life to work on that disapproving frown."

"Seeing green" prompted many Free Republic users, called "Freepers," to leave some splashy comments on the thread. One noted, "You can never become too narrow minded too early!" And, aha, another Hitler comparison: "Hitler was a vegetarian and look at all that he accomplished." Another added, "He tried vegetarian food and dismissed it through experience. She sneered at meat and dismissed it through superior pre-supposition. The definition of liberalism." Other comments from the site are just too vulgar or offensive to be printed in a high school publication.

Free Republic is well known for copying news items from mainstream publications and other sources and posting them on various threads, sparking right-leaning discussions among the site's over 170,000 registered users, according to The Washington Post. In fact, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times took legal action against Free Republic several years ago over just that. The two print publications sued for copyright infringement, alleging that Free Republic improperly took entire copyrighted articles from their respective websites. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and Free Republic agreed to remove the posted articles and pay the two newspapers several thousand dollars each. Now, Free Republic posts only excerpts of copyrighted material on its message boards.

The flip side

Despite these examples of angry reactions to SCO stories by critics on the Internet, the posting of most articles on other sites have had few negative repercussions and have instead served to increase SCO's readership and exposure.

A review I wrote last summer of "Reno 911!" was republished on an alternative lifestyle website called MetroG, apparently due to the show's portrayal of a gay police officer. In Nov., I wrote a review of the live special that "The Daily Show" staged on election night which was soon reprinted on Wliia.net. In addition, a news story I wrote last October was posted on Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen's campaign website, as was another article by junior Jeremy Goodman. Another article by Goodman, "Pat Martino packs Blues Alley," was reprinted on JazzGuitarResources.com. Junior Kiran Bhat had two of his articles posted on other sites - one on Valerie Ervin's Montgomery County Board of Education campaign website, and another on the National Association of Home Builders website.

Numerous other SCO articles have been published, both in their entirety and as excerpts, on outside websites. A feature story by senior Olivia Bevacqua was reprinted without any attribution whatsoever on HealthyPlace.com. An excerpt from a feature by senior Karima Tawfik was added to a thread on an Internet blog called Recently. Also, a few sentences from senior Eric Glover's feature on Internet gaming were posted on the website of the Cyberathlete Amateur League. "Understanding the iPod craze," a story by junior Clair Briggs, was republished on ipod411.com.

In addition, a movie review of "King Arthur" by junior Ekta Taneja was posted on ioanonline.com. The person who added it to the site wrote, "Now THIS is a good review." A story junior Mike Bushnell wrote concerning 50 Cent's expulsion of rapper The Game from G-Unit was posted on andilinks.com, drawing a slew of interested commenters to the SCO site. Junior Chris Consolino's news stroy on Blair's new vending machine policy was partially republished on tradeworlds.com. An article by senior Anthony Glynn about track runner Gary Clark, a Blair alum, was posted on Dana College's website. An excerpt from a story about the dangers of high school wrestlers cutting weight, by Blair graduate Easha Anand, was an included on a page on PBS.org.

Since SCO's content is not copyrighted, it's perfectly legal for others to republish our articles in their entirety, as long as the other sites don't stand to make a profit from the reprinted material. Technically, uncopyrighted material becomes property of the author once it's published.

This article itself discusses a number of topics likely to strike some sort of chord with critics on the Internet; it refers to the Assault Weapons Ban and the tactics of "Freepers," for example. Who knows, maybe some interested reader will repost on another site. If that's the case, let the volley of emails and comments begin.