Friday, June 20, 2008

The Associated Press Asserts Copyright Claims

In a bold move involving copyright infringement against bloggers, and claiming zero tolerance for even the possibility of very short "fair use" quotes, The Associated Press has made itself irrelevant.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

AP is going against established copyright law with this proposal. I don't think it will ever happen. Besides its almost impossible to police. Shame on you AP.

Steve

Angela Ackerman said...

I read about this--seems like overkill to me. I agree, I think it's posturing, because this would be too difficult to monitor.

Anonymous said...

I hadn't heard about this until reading your post. Interesting. And not good!

technomom said...

I haven't heard anything about them actually contacting bloggers--have you?

benbradley said...

Hi Technomom and all: I actually didn'tt know much about the story, I just thought I'd throw out a one-liner. Here's the discussion thread that prompted this entry:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106431

By the comments here, there appears to be a lot of interest in this issue from bloggers (four comments on one of MY blog entries counts as "a lot of interest").

I researched it a little more and am reminded that the AP was aiming at a smallish but still well-read (a few thousand readers) site, the "Drudge Retort" (a comment-on-news-stories, Slashdot/Digg type site for political news) rather than individual bloggers (this is written by the owner/operator of the Drudge Retort):
http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/3368/ap-files-7-dmca-takedowns-against-drudge
(and of course the Drudge Retort should not be confused with the much more popular "Drudge Report.)

What really brought this story back to mind today was when I read this short AP news story of a small plane crashing into a car, with an AP "disclaimer" at the end that's almost as long as the story itself!
http://wsbradio.com/common/ap/2008/08/12/D92GTR703.html

This earlier story/commentary appears to sum up the original AP flareup a few months ago:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080721/unquotable
From the following, it appears the AP backed down against the Drudge Retort, but is still claiming copyright that precludes even short quotes that have traditionally been widely regarded (even in court) as "fair use:"
http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/3372/ap-settles-dispute-drudge-retort

benbradley said...

Thanks for the compliment, Anonymous. I really should write another entry or two. It seems like over a century in net.time since my last blog entry. I almost forgot what a blog is...