We have learned that a suit by Wallyhood of the Seattle Times is imminent and may come in the next few days to weeks. At issue are a number of “methods and practices” unique to the blog that have been copied by the Times without apparent license or attribution.
When asked to summarize the issues, editor Megan Dulgar Okabayashi pointed to the most serious transgression by the Times. “We tend to end every sentence with a period, and then that is followed by a space. Our readers look for that. And I love that about us. But if you look at the Seattle Times … They’re doing the exact same thing! We have asked them repeatedly simply to acknowledge that they have borrowed that from us, but that acknowledgement has not been forthcoming. So I guess we’ll be seeing them in court.”
Julie Martin, another editor, noted some other editorial flourishes unique to the blog. “If you look closely at our stories, you might notice that we begin each sentence with a capital letter. We also like to capitalize our proper nouns. Over there at the Seattle Times, what do you think they’re doing? Same thing!”
In its suit, Wallyhood is being represented by Gary Shigenaka of the firm Shigenaka & Shigenaka (comprised of Gary and his cat). While retired from his life-long profession as a marine biologist, Shigenaka had been looking to pick up a side gig. Said Shigenaka, “I wanted something somewhere on the difficulty spectrum between my profession and brushing my teeth, and practicing law seemed of similar difficulty to brushing my teeth. I mean, you just say ‘I object’ every once in a while, and that’s about it. We’ve all seen it. So I was pretty confident I could take this case on.”
Asked to discuss the particulars of the case, Shigenaka said he could not discuss the particulars of the case, but said, “It’s pretty brazen what the Times is doing. Just have a look any day at the copy they roll out, and you’ll see the periods, you’ll see the capital letters. So they can’t just run and hide from this. It’s really pretty sad when a small, volunteer, grass-roots blog like Wallyhood gets stomped on by the local paper. So they’ll be hearing from me – or my cat.”
Jack McLaughlin, another editor, was asked his opinion about the likelihood of success in this law suit. “Well, people don’t care too much about the law anymore,” he said. “What really matters is punishing your adversaries on social media. The Seattle Times is just a crusty, old-style newspaper, and they don’t know how to play this game over there. That’s where we’ve really got them.” Asked if he had any message for the Times, McLaughlin said, “Buckle up, boys! You’re in for a rough ride!”
