On the morning of April 23, 2013, Watertown, Massachusetts, resident Andrew Kitzenberg (@AKitz) posted a MEDIA ALERT offering to the world, under a Creative Commons license, 16 digital photos he took on April 19 of the Watertown shootout between the Boston Marathon bombers (who I’m calling the Brothers Tsarnaev) and the police. (This was merely the first Watertown gunfight of April 19; later in the day the epic “Gunfight at the Shrink-Wrapped Boat” occurred.)
Mr. Kitzenberg posted the photos on this page, along with his narrative about the photos and the events he witnessed. Mr. Kitzenberg’s only conditions were that any reuse of the photos credit him as the photographer, and include a mention of the website of his company (www.getonhand.com) which is fundraising for the ONE FUND Boston.
Many bloggers, including Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), linked to that page. Then Mr. Kitzenberg appeared on CNN, giving a detailed interview about his photos (video here). Then, somewhat oddly, Mr. Kitzenberg deleted all the photos from his website (leaving the descriptions intact), offering a crytic explanation:
UPDATE 3:20PM 4/23/2013: I have decided to take down the photos during the ongoing investigation.
Right now (about 10 p.m. Central time), the photos are still viewable in Google cache. To ensure they will be permanently viewable in their original context, I’ve recreated the original page, below Continue Reading »