KB
02-06-2006, 04:16 PM
01.31.2006
War Correspondent Michael Yon Considers Going to War Against the U.S. Army
War correspondent and blogger Michael Yon (L), the author of the wildly popular Michael Yon: Online Magazine spent almost ten months in Iraq writing about the war raging all about him. Now he is considering engaging in a war of a different sort.
After exhausting all his administrative remedies to obtain compensation for a set of three pictures he alleges the U.S. Army released worldwide without his permission, Yon said Sunday that he is considering taking legal action against the Army in Federal Court.
Yon said he may be left without any other options after the Army's civilian lawyer denied his claim for compensation for the photographs, which gained Yon much international acclaim and far less money.
"It is expensive to stay in Iraq," Yon said. "Just to take a secure convoy from Jordan or Kuwait can cost $5,000 or more and it is easy to spend $500 a night to stay in a hotel in the Green Zone."
Yon hails from Winter Haven, Florida, where he grew up always looking for a way out of his dismal home life. After finishing high school he joined the Army and became a 19-year-old Green Beret. No sooner had he finished the Special Forces qualification course at Ft. Bragg, NC than he killed a man in a fist fight while on a weekend pass and got arrested for murder. Eventually he was exonerated because it was a clear case of self defense, Yon explained. After being cleared by civilian authorities, Yon attended the Defense Language Institute at the beautiful Presidio in San Francisco studying German. Upon graduation he spent four more years with Special Forces A-teams in Massachusetts and Germany.
"I loved Special Forces but I hated the Army," Yon said.
When he finished his obligation Yon left the service and struck out on his own. In time Yon found himself trying a variety of strange occupations including establishing a vending business in Poland and hunting cannibals in India, eventually tracking them to a compound near Sonora, CA, he said. In 2000 Yon self-published a memoir called Danger Close, that details his life before chucking it all to go to Iraq find out for himself what the war there was all about.
John Mason, Yon's Washington-based attorney, said the 41-year-old adventurer, author, and photographer has not yet decided what legal action he intends to take.
"Right now I am not doing anything," Mason said. "We are no longer negotiating anything and we are just waiting."
Mason said the "real" issue at hand is whether the Army can use the so-called "hold-harmless" releases signed by all embedded journalists and photographers in Iraq to give the military in general and the Army in particular "a complete defense against copyright infringement claims" and the right to "redistribute any embedded journalists' work without liability."
Last May, in addition to two other photographs Yon took a picture of an American officer cradling a bloodied young Iraqi girl in his arms while she was dying. The poignant and disturbing image effectively captures the pain and anguish everyone touched by the war in Iraq endures. Yon claims he gave copies of his photo to Army officials at their request for their private use. Yon's offering was limited to allowing the Army to use his photographs for internal purposes and not for commercial use, Mason said.
"Mike offered to let the Army use his photographs, all of his material to help them. Mike does a great job showing the world what the soldiers in Iraq are doing – both the good and bad. It is good for the Army and everybody else," Mason added.
Unfortunately, Yon said, the Army chose to release his photographs to the mainstream media without his permission and almost immediately the photos, particularly the one of the soldier carrying the Iraqi girl, were published in newspapers and blogs all over the world. To add insult to injury the photos were credited to the U.S. Army, Yon said with just an edge of bitterness breaking through his usually controlled demeanor. One photo showed up on the May 7, 2005 cover of Stars and Stripes, a popular newspaper published for the U.S. military.
Mason said on that on Yon's behalf he filed a claim against the Army for $150,000 - the limit of the damages he can recover - with the appropriate Army officials.
"The problem was caused by the PAO (Public Affairs Officer)," Mason said. "Now the settlement has to be authorized from somebody's budget."
Mason said he tried to reason with BG Vincent Brooks, a sometimes prickly West Pointer who has a reputation for curtness. Brooks, Chief of the Army's Office of Public Affairs, has shot more than one hot round in the direction of DefenseWatch over the years he has been the Army's senior mouthpiece.
Brooks reportedly said, "I don't get involved once the attorneys get involved" and declined to take any action, Mason added. "He doesn't want to settle anything out of his budget. Somebody has to pay the claim. It isn't about embedded journalists against Brooks. They (US Army) claim they have the right to use any embedded journalist's intellectual property and that is nonsense."
Army lawyers in the Office of the Judge Advocate General investigated and rejected the claim, arguing that by signing a "Hold Harmless/Release from Liability Statement," Yon agreed to release the Army from liability for any "injuries" -- which the Army lawyers found included the financial injury of the distribution of copyrighted photos.
In a certified letter to Mason, Alan P. Klein, the Intellectual Property Counsel of the Army, said on 13 October 2005, said that Yon was out of luck.
"This office has completed its investigation of Mr. Yon's claim of copyright infringement. For the reasons which will now be discussed, the claim for compensation must be denied."
Klein said the agreement states that the embedded journalist realizes that there are "inherent risks to life, limb and equipment" and that the military cannot guarantee the journalist's safety.
He also said in his letter to Mason that "although the claimant allegedly may never have given the U.S. Army a written or oral license to distribute the works to the news media in the United States, his conduct created an implied nonexclusive license for the Army to distribute the works to the news media for republication."
Yon said during an interview with DefenseWatch in Kansas City that the release is limited to physical injuries, not copyright and intellectual property rights. Using the Army's self-serving criteria, he said, the military can simply steal the work of any embedded journalist in Iraq or anywhere else where journalists are risking their lives.
"That's bull****," Yon summed up.
Mason agrees with Yon's assessment that the Army has it all wrong, although he prefers more conciliatory language. Mason said he is prepared to take the fight to a legal battlefield if Yon decides that is what he wants to do.
Yon's special ire is directed at Brooks, to whom he wrote a passionate letter on December 8, 2005 seeking his help and intervention in settling the matter before it turned from a skirmish into open warfare.
"I sent it to you because in all my research as well as in my dealings with you I have come to respect you. I sent it to you because I sincerely believe that despite having largely secured a victory in Iraq, we are losing the media war," Yon wrote.
Mason said it is important to understand that "Brooks is only involved in this informally. Michael will decide if and when he will file a lawsuit for copyright infringement. At that time we file a suit in a federal claims court against the appropriate authority in the Army and it is not Brooks."
Nathaniel R. Helms is the editor of DefenseWatch Magazine. He can be contacted at natshouse1@charter.net. Please send all feedback to DWFeedback@yahoo.com
War Correspondent Michael Yon Considers Going to War Against the U.S. Army
War correspondent and blogger Michael Yon (L), the author of the wildly popular Michael Yon: Online Magazine spent almost ten months in Iraq writing about the war raging all about him. Now he is considering engaging in a war of a different sort.
After exhausting all his administrative remedies to obtain compensation for a set of three pictures he alleges the U.S. Army released worldwide without his permission, Yon said Sunday that he is considering taking legal action against the Army in Federal Court.
Yon said he may be left without any other options after the Army's civilian lawyer denied his claim for compensation for the photographs, which gained Yon much international acclaim and far less money.
"It is expensive to stay in Iraq," Yon said. "Just to take a secure convoy from Jordan or Kuwait can cost $5,000 or more and it is easy to spend $500 a night to stay in a hotel in the Green Zone."
Yon hails from Winter Haven, Florida, where he grew up always looking for a way out of his dismal home life. After finishing high school he joined the Army and became a 19-year-old Green Beret. No sooner had he finished the Special Forces qualification course at Ft. Bragg, NC than he killed a man in a fist fight while on a weekend pass and got arrested for murder. Eventually he was exonerated because it was a clear case of self defense, Yon explained. After being cleared by civilian authorities, Yon attended the Defense Language Institute at the beautiful Presidio in San Francisco studying German. Upon graduation he spent four more years with Special Forces A-teams in Massachusetts and Germany.
"I loved Special Forces but I hated the Army," Yon said.
When he finished his obligation Yon left the service and struck out on his own. In time Yon found himself trying a variety of strange occupations including establishing a vending business in Poland and hunting cannibals in India, eventually tracking them to a compound near Sonora, CA, he said. In 2000 Yon self-published a memoir called Danger Close, that details his life before chucking it all to go to Iraq find out for himself what the war there was all about.
John Mason, Yon's Washington-based attorney, said the 41-year-old adventurer, author, and photographer has not yet decided what legal action he intends to take.
"Right now I am not doing anything," Mason said. "We are no longer negotiating anything and we are just waiting."
Mason said the "real" issue at hand is whether the Army can use the so-called "hold-harmless" releases signed by all embedded journalists and photographers in Iraq to give the military in general and the Army in particular "a complete defense against copyright infringement claims" and the right to "redistribute any embedded journalists' work without liability."
Last May, in addition to two other photographs Yon took a picture of an American officer cradling a bloodied young Iraqi girl in his arms while she was dying. The poignant and disturbing image effectively captures the pain and anguish everyone touched by the war in Iraq endures. Yon claims he gave copies of his photo to Army officials at their request for their private use. Yon's offering was limited to allowing the Army to use his photographs for internal purposes and not for commercial use, Mason said.
"Mike offered to let the Army use his photographs, all of his material to help them. Mike does a great job showing the world what the soldiers in Iraq are doing – both the good and bad. It is good for the Army and everybody else," Mason added.
Unfortunately, Yon said, the Army chose to release his photographs to the mainstream media without his permission and almost immediately the photos, particularly the one of the soldier carrying the Iraqi girl, were published in newspapers and blogs all over the world. To add insult to injury the photos were credited to the U.S. Army, Yon said with just an edge of bitterness breaking through his usually controlled demeanor. One photo showed up on the May 7, 2005 cover of Stars and Stripes, a popular newspaper published for the U.S. military.
Mason said on that on Yon's behalf he filed a claim against the Army for $150,000 - the limit of the damages he can recover - with the appropriate Army officials.
"The problem was caused by the PAO (Public Affairs Officer)," Mason said. "Now the settlement has to be authorized from somebody's budget."
Mason said he tried to reason with BG Vincent Brooks, a sometimes prickly West Pointer who has a reputation for curtness. Brooks, Chief of the Army's Office of Public Affairs, has shot more than one hot round in the direction of DefenseWatch over the years he has been the Army's senior mouthpiece.
Brooks reportedly said, "I don't get involved once the attorneys get involved" and declined to take any action, Mason added. "He doesn't want to settle anything out of his budget. Somebody has to pay the claim. It isn't about embedded journalists against Brooks. They (US Army) claim they have the right to use any embedded journalist's intellectual property and that is nonsense."
Army lawyers in the Office of the Judge Advocate General investigated and rejected the claim, arguing that by signing a "Hold Harmless/Release from Liability Statement," Yon agreed to release the Army from liability for any "injuries" -- which the Army lawyers found included the financial injury of the distribution of copyrighted photos.
In a certified letter to Mason, Alan P. Klein, the Intellectual Property Counsel of the Army, said on 13 October 2005, said that Yon was out of luck.
"This office has completed its investigation of Mr. Yon's claim of copyright infringement. For the reasons which will now be discussed, the claim for compensation must be denied."
Klein said the agreement states that the embedded journalist realizes that there are "inherent risks to life, limb and equipment" and that the military cannot guarantee the journalist's safety.
He also said in his letter to Mason that "although the claimant allegedly may never have given the U.S. Army a written or oral license to distribute the works to the news media in the United States, his conduct created an implied nonexclusive license for the Army to distribute the works to the news media for republication."
Yon said during an interview with DefenseWatch in Kansas City that the release is limited to physical injuries, not copyright and intellectual property rights. Using the Army's self-serving criteria, he said, the military can simply steal the work of any embedded journalist in Iraq or anywhere else where journalists are risking their lives.
"That's bull****," Yon summed up.
Mason agrees with Yon's assessment that the Army has it all wrong, although he prefers more conciliatory language. Mason said he is prepared to take the fight to a legal battlefield if Yon decides that is what he wants to do.
Yon's special ire is directed at Brooks, to whom he wrote a passionate letter on December 8, 2005 seeking his help and intervention in settling the matter before it turned from a skirmish into open warfare.
"I sent it to you because in all my research as well as in my dealings with you I have come to respect you. I sent it to you because I sincerely believe that despite having largely secured a victory in Iraq, we are losing the media war," Yon wrote.
Mason said it is important to understand that "Brooks is only involved in this informally. Michael will decide if and when he will file a lawsuit for copyright infringement. At that time we file a suit in a federal claims court against the appropriate authority in the Army and it is not Brooks."
Nathaniel R. Helms is the editor of DefenseWatch Magazine. He can be contacted at natshouse1@charter.net. Please send all feedback to DWFeedback@yahoo.com