Community Reviewers of LTH Forum

Community reviewers of LTH Forum,

I will shortly express, apparently to David Dicksond and Gary Wiv, the distaste and disappointment Tim and I have had with the meanspirited posturing of today's announcement. No formal plan was ever discussed with this website, which of course had come to our attention before today, thanks to content created by the thousands of you. We had in fact considered a relationship with several gourmet websites to expand the regional reach and relevance of Zagat Online. After the succesful third-party model we have piloted with WellPoint. This is obviously would not be welcomed by your web-masters, so the discussion will end here. As an attorney and brand expert, I do not take infringement lightly and ask that any of you using the Zagat logo even in jest, will remove it before a cease and desist is served.

I do value the Online Community's (this and others) contributions to reviewing. The Survey would not be possible, nor the greater dining community served, without the efforts of those eating and writing on the internet. Websites like this are an essential commodity. You might simply look to more responsible leadership for any serious relationships to develop.

Nina Zagat

New York
Adventuring in Dining
Zagat Survey
Zagat Online

.
Grumble, brumble......

Self righteous NYers, geeesh.

Come on, it's an April fool's joke get over it...

Welcome to LTH and thanks for posting.

I hope you take the use of your logo as in the intent that it was used. Being 4-1-09 and all.

I am sure no one would object to your use of our reviews for your surveys and I would like to welcome you to our city to sample some of the treats that we hold so dearly.

I am sure we will do just fine without your help. We have come to love our leadership and the job they do.

Thanks again and Have Fun!

Nina NYC wrote:Community reviewers of LTH Forum,

I will shortly express, apparently to David Dicksond and Gary Wiv, the distaste and disappointment Tim and I have had with the meanspirited posturing of today's announcement. No formal plan was ever discussed with this website, which of course had come to our attention before today, thanks to content created by the thousands of you. We had in fact considered a relationship with several gourmet websites to expand the regional reach and relevance of Zagat Online. After the succesful third-party model we have piloted with WellPoint. This is obviously would not be welcomed by your web-masters, so the discussion will end here. As an attorney and brand expert, I do not take infringement lightly and ask that any of you using the Zagat logo even in jest, will remove it before a cease and desist is served.

I do value the Online Community's (this and others) contributions to reviewing. The Survey would not be possible, nor the greater dining community served, without the efforts of those eating and writing on the internet. Websites like this are an essential commodity. You might simply look to more responsible leadership for any serious relationships to develop.

Nina Zagat

New York
Adventuring in Dining
Zagat Survey
Zagat Online

"lighten up Francis"

Based on her post, here are some some reviews I'm sure Ms. Z would find more useful than anything here on LTH.

Is parody not fair use anymore?

Wait.....Zagat reads LTH?

Yeah, I really think Nina's email address is "adventuring@gmail.com"

Very plausible.

Ahh well, Nina Zagat has gone the way of gourmondo, it seems.

nicinchic wrote:Wait.....Zagat reads LTH?

Only when they're looking for somewhere to eat

Nina NYC wrote: As an attorney and brand expert, I do not take infringement lightly and ask that any of you using the Zagat logo even in jest, will remove it before a cease and desist is served.

Nina NYC:

As a fellow attorney I would like to refer you to an excellent article in the Harvard Law Review, Leval, Toward a Fair Use Standard, 103 Harv.L.Rev. 1105 (1990) which might refresh you on the concept of transformativeness. Transformativeness in parody refers to the new insight that readers, listeners, or viewers gain from the parodic treatment of the original work. Thank you 2 Live Crew for this contribution to the law and social commentary.

According to Judge Leval, In order for a parody to be transformative, the use must be productive and must employ the quoted matter in a different manner or for a different purpose from the original. An expert like yourself obviously understands the concept of parody and fair use. You must have just forgotten to mention it.

I won't attempt to explain the joke to you, as you are obviously not an expert in humor. Good luck and please try not to take yourself so seriously.

iblock9 wrote:Nina NYC:

...

Your info is good to know, and supports what I (a layman, when it comes to all things legal) was pondering when I first saw this.

However, the fact that a Gmail address was used for an "official" business communication (one would think a zagat.com address would prove without a doubt that this is the real deal), and the poor writing structure ("After the succesful third-party model we have piloted with WellPoint. This is obviously would not be welcomed....") have convinced me that we, as the kids would say, got punk'd.

Whoever was behind this, good show

I didn't read LTH yesterday but sure missed out on a good time.

Classic stuff.

To the devious minds who concoted this, great job!

Llama wrote:Ahh well, Nina Zagat has gone the way of gourmondo, it seems.

Teeheehee,

I loved gourmondo

I also heart Trotter, he is the end and beginning of all things food.- Go Badgers!

Rick Bayless- Hooray for Wicker Park & Buck Town!

Achatz- Hooray, I have never eaten his food, but hey he survived a deadly mouth cancer and he is alive and kicking.

Arun's is great. I love Albany Park!

Nuff Said,

In case you stumbled across this and do not know, this thread was in response to the announcement that the GNR program is being taken over by Zagat.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

d

dicksond wrote:It seemed like a good idea at the time.
d

Except to Nina.

But do we know it was really Nina? With a gmail address, rather than a zagat.com address?

After the succesful [sic] third-party model we have piloted with WellPoint. This is obviously would not [sic] be welcomed by your web-masters, so the discussion will end here.

Is Nina really that illiterate?

nr706 wrote:But do we know it was really Nina? With a gmail address, rather than a zagat.com address?

After the succesful [sic] third-party model we have piloted with WellPoint. This is obviously would not [sic] be welcomed by your web-masters, so the discussion will end here.

Is Nina really that illiterate?

Yes:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0712224779

And I thought that if I didn't throw in a few typos, it would be less believable.

- Matt



(edited to make clearer I was responsible for bringing Nina to life, with April 1 apologies)