Clinical Reader: A Example of Social Media Fail

I'm passing this on not so much because it has an effect on my immediate library but it shows how people are using new social media tools and how companies can badly screw up.

The short version: A new "medical" website Clinical Reader claimed to have endorsement from NLM and had some nice graphics. Problem 1) National Library of Medicine doesn't endorse commercial ventures and Problem 2) Misused copyrighted images. A medical blogger called them out on it--politely, but firmly. Clinical Reader, via Twitter, threatened Nikki with legal action. And that's just where the drama started.

It's interesting to review, even if only to be aware of the drama-llama grandstanding, they really didn't do that, did they? Nothing new to the libs who've been following but for others who might now have caught the drama:

The blog post that started it all:
http://eagledawg.blogspot.com/2009/07/clinical-reader-starry-ethics-fail.html

Two really good summaries of the insanity (the latter one is LONG but worth wading through):
http://pegasuslibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/07/clinical-reader-train-wreck-just-keeps.html
http://dltj.org/article/clinical-reader-background/

Nikki's open letter to Clinical Reader:
http://eagledawg.blogspot.com/2009/07/open-letter-to-clinical-reader.html