An Exciting New Development

Following the announcement on the weekend that the blog would discontinue posting the Cox and Rathvon puzzle out of copyright concerns, Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, the creators of the puzzle, posted a comment on the blog stating "we own the copyright, and we don’t have a problem with its appearance on this blog". I have since been in contact with Emily and Henry and they not only reiterated their offer but strongly encouraged me to continue posting the puzzle. We have come to an arrangement whereby I will post the puzzle on the blog one week following its publication in the National Post. The one week delay is out of consideration for the interests of the National Post. The review of the puzzle will continue to be posted on or about the date the puzzle appears in the National Post.

I think this arrangement accommodates the interests of all parties in a fair manner. Readers who obtain the puzzle through the National Post (either directly or via PressReader^*) will continue to have access to the review in a timely fashion. The vast majority of Saturday readers who rely on this blog for access to the puzzle will continue to receive it on a regular basis—it will just be one week after its publication in the National Post. And, of course, they will not have to wait for the review as the review will have already been posted. And finally, the arrangement respects the interests of the National Post.

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^* see How to Access the National Post on PressReader

 

There have also been a couple of positive side benefits to this episode. First, I got to "meet" Emily and Henry who I was surprised to discover were even aware of the existence of my little blog. Second, we all learned a lot about the PressReader service. Personally, I was amazed to discover the multitude of newspapers and magazines from around the world to which I had free access through my library card. And, maybe, it encouraged a few people to join their local public library to avail themselves of access to the PressReader service.

 

Most of our small community of regular commenters have reported that they are either subscribers to the National Post or are able to access the puzzle via PressReader. So, hopefully, we will not lose too many readers as a result of this change.

 

This change will go into effect this coming Saturday. The puzzle that will be posted early in the morning will be the one that appeared in the National Post this past weekend. The review posted later in the day will be for the then current puzzle. So please do not leave messages that it is last week's puzzle—it is and that is by design!

In conclusion, I sincerely thank Emily and Henry for reaching out to the blog and for graciously offering to allow the puzzle to be posted.

Please share your thoughts. As always, your comments are very much appreciated.