The Twitter account Funhouse (@BackAftaThis) that tracked Mike Francesa’s WFAN show, including his contradictions by replaying them, said that it will "no longer do so after receiving a copyright infringement message from WFAN’s parent company, Entercom," according to Andrew Marchand of the N.Y. POST. In a Twitter direct message, the operator of the Funhouse account said that he would "only continue if he received assurance from Entercom it was OK." He said that he always "tried to keep the clips short to comply with the Fair Use Doctrine." He feels the decision is “incredibly short-sighted." He mentioned that he has "heard from so many people who started listening to Francesa after they heard the clips" (NYPOST.com, 5/8). In N.Y., Evan Grossman noted the account was "ratted out by a WFAN content producer" for what he calls "reposting copyrighted material from our radio station on a regular basis." Now a "grassroots online sports channel has been bullied by the corporate barons who control WFAN simply because it could." Funhouse's corner of Twitter (it has 19,000 followers) was "equal parts saddened and outraged by the news." The operator of the Funhouse account, who has a "full-time job outside of chronicling Francesa's daily show, admitted in a post that keeping tabs on the Sports Pope has been a 'S--TLOAD of work'" (NYDAILYNEWS.com, 5/8).
IDENTITY CRISIS: On Long Island, Neil Best notes the author of @BackAftaThis "repeatedly has turned down interview requests ... over the years, declining to reveal his identity to reporters and/or editors even when offered anonymity publicly." Entercom Exec VP/Programming Chris Oliviero recently said that one goal of the "upcoming digital platform for Francesa’s show was to gain control over content that at times has gone viral outside of Entercom’s orbit" (NEWSDAY, 5/9).
