whose value proposition?

["Dr. James J. O'Donnell" <provost@georgetown.edu>]

The discussion of Yahoo and Google reminds me of a story that may indeed
be an urban legend, but I heard it in the Library of Congress, so it must
be authoritative even if untrue.

The Theodore Roosevelt presidential campaign had printed up a million
copies of a flier or brochure with a striking photo of the candidate on
it.  Then somebody suddenly remembered -- "We never got permission of the
photographer!  He'll charge us a fortune for this and we can't afford it!"

The crafty banker in the room (in this version, J.P. Morgan himself) said,
"Not to worry."  He called up the photographer and said, "That's a very
fine photograph of Mr. Roosevelt you've taken.  We're so impressed with it
that we're willing to put it on our campaign brochure without charging you
any fee at all for what will be fabulous publicity for you.  We just need
you to go through the formality of signing a little copyright form:  can I
put it in the mail to you?"  The photographer was thrilled to agree.

Jim O'Donnell
Georgetown U.