Bernie Krisher vs. Khmer Intelligence

Last September, Bernard Krisher accused a handful of high-profile personalities and news agencies of intellectual property theft. In a full page ad in the Cambodia Daily, Krisher named names — Radio Free Asia, Sam Rainsy, The Catholic Church in Australia, Nexis, Factiva and Malaysia’s Bernama News Agency. He promised more ads to come, with “examples of the crimes of these organizations.”

For reasons unknown, those ads never appeared. Perhaps Krisher thought better of committing yet more libelous accusations to print. Perhaps he was too busy counting his advertising revenue, which conservative estimates put at more than $50,000 per month. (Not bad for a non-profit. Where that sugar goes is anybody’s guess.)

Today, Krisher comes out swinging again.

REWARD FOR INFORMATION ON
“KHMER INTELLIGENCE”

The CAMBODIA DAILY offers a reward of $100, a free subscription and thanks to anyone who can provide information as to the directors, nature, whereabouts and accurate address, telephone and e-mail contact information which will enable us to contact and obtain compensations from KHMER INTELLIGENCE, an anonymous organization that has continuously violated our copyright, scanned and disseminated CAMBODIA DAILY material without our permission and authorization, violated our intellectual property and damaged our circulation income while curtailing the opportunity of our staff to market their material to other publications.

Cry. Me. A. RIVER.

For a publisher who’s pulling $50 thousand a month primarily on donated copy, this whole “victim” gambit rings more than just a bit hollow. But whatever. The fact is that if Krisher wanted Khmer Intelligence to stop reprinting Cambodia Daily stories, all he had to do was ask. And when he did, KI immediately complied. That was months ago.

So what’s with today’s ad? Who knows. But the whole thing sounds like nothing more than the rantings of a grumpy old man.