Surely if the tool is good, it can stand on its own?
The author could easily have used greeking or content promoting ScrollKit to fill the site. Ripping off NYT's material is a dodgy way to start things IMO. Hell, write your own feature about a pet, or your grandparents' legacy or soup up a page of Wikipedia content with Creative Commons and attributed Flickr photos.
I almost don't care what happened after that (the private YouTube video, the leveraging of their brand, etc). The reaction to the initial contact could've been overwhelmingly apologetic - complete removal of the video, no leveraging of Snow Fall and so on - but instead makes for linkbait.
Even now, going to the demo gives the big "they made me do it" message when any text could've replaced their content very easily. You know, replicated in an hour...
This story might've got the tool excellent publicity, but I don't view it positively as a result.
The author could easily have used greeking or content promoting ScrollKit to fill the site. Ripping off NYT's material is a dodgy way to start things IMO. Hell, write your own feature about a pet, or your grandparents' legacy or soup up a page of Wikipedia content with Creative Commons and attributed Flickr photos.
I almost don't care what happened after that (the private YouTube video, the leveraging of their brand, etc). The reaction to the initial contact could've been overwhelmingly apologetic - complete removal of the video, no leveraging of Snow Fall and so on - but instead makes for linkbait.
Even now, going to the demo gives the big "they made me do it" message when any text could've replaced their content very easily. You know, replicated in an hour...
This story might've got the tool excellent publicity, but I don't view it positively as a result.