A Cascadia Weekly cover

The Cascadia Weekly, a Bellingham, Washington newspaper, apologized last month, admitting it re-published film reviews without the permission of authors. Essentially, the paper explained it re-published content without a license or the authors’ consent, but that it did give credit.

“All feature reviews were bylined and sourced, and our intent was never to deprive or defraud these authors of credit for their work,” the publisher Tim Johnson wrote in a Sept. 18 apology. “Cascadia Weekly received no revenue or remit from these reviews, which were offered as service to readers. These were licensed products for which we did not hold a license.”

Despite the apology, Johnson reasoned that the newspaper staff doesn’t have time with their deadline to get permission, and “Our sin was promotion; and in particular promotion of the many fine, small-distribution independent films of limited circulation that arrive each month at our arthouse theaters, and that deserve attention in our community.” The paper is now deleting content from its archives to rectify the matter, and isn’t publishing any new feature film reviews.

iMediaEthics asked Johnson how many reviews have been deleted. His response:

“I am afraid I cannot answer that question definitively, and see below.

There were many. At my instruction, we have removed all

reviews–whatever their status or origin–from our online product until

this question can be quantified and resolved. We also retain PDF

archives of our printed product. We are responding to specific requests

to delete content from those.

Johnson said one writer complained about the use of her work which prompted the apology, but no writers have threatened legal action. However, “four publishers have issued cease and desist orders, and we have complied with their directives,” he wrote.

Johnson added that he didn’t know how long the newspaper had been lifting reviews. He explained:

“Frankly, I do not know. It was my understanding that the editor in

charge of this section had a stable of available writers from whom she

had asked permission to republish their work, which was in syndication

or was obtaining them through a Creative Commons license. We subscribe to a number of syndication services with a large variety of content. “Our practice is to obtain consent, or use licensed or original material. It turns out that I was very foolish for believing this editor was

handling material in a proper manner; however, that does not matter as I am ultimately responsible for the material we produce. The editor has

been removed from her desk. She offered to resign, but I chose not to

accept that resignation because, again, I am responsible. In coming days

we will need an experienced team. “This has been an enormously humiliating experience for me as publisher, and I apologize to all we have wronged.”

According to Johnson, Cascadia Weekly has a staff of five and circulation of 18,000.

In his online apology, Johnson wrote,