AP admits being too hard on boggers

A BATTLE IS BEING WAGED in the bogosphere, leaving the Associated Press (AP) to lick its wounds and beg for mercy. Well, ok, not beg for mercy exactly, but having to admit to being “heavy handed” in issuing nasty take down notices to site’s which quote from it.

AP got its knickers all in a twist over a user submitted story in Drudge Retort, linking to and quoting some 50 words (32 being a Hilary Clinton quote) from the news agency, in what most would assume is “fair use”. Most, except AP of course, who doesn’t want anyone touching its precious quotes. Hands off!

Drudge Retort, a sort of lefty parody site of Matt Drudge’s right wing conspiracy-theory-touting Drudge report, is a sort of news aggregator. It does what scores of other sites do nowadays, which is allow users to post stories they found interesting and allow others to comment on them. Generally, it is widely accepted that having stories linked is actually good for the original source, as it spreads the word and boosts online cred. But AP doesn’t want to be cool. AP just wants to be left alone with its ‘original’ content.

Sadly not giving the INQ an opportunity to quote directly from an AP story, Jim Kennedy, AP’s vice president and strategy director, gave an interview to the New York times, which we will quote from instead.

Still refusing to back down from claims that quoting and linking are infringements of copyright, Kennedy did admit that the company may have been a little harsh and hasty with its DCMA takedown notice. She reassured boggers that the news agency will now “attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.’s copyright”.

Well, thank heavens for that, because here we were thinking we could just use “fair use” as established in law. But now we can all look forward to being sued by AP for violating its non-binding legal assertions of what Nick we can and can’t nick re-write write post.

Attempting to dig its way out of its ever deepening hole, AP apparently issued a press release which says it will challenge blog or news stories, and we quote: “when we feel the use is more reproduction than reference, or when others are encouraged to cut and paste.” Cut and Paste? How shocking.

The statement concluded, “It is more consistent with the spirit of the Internet to link to content so people can read the whole thing in context”. µ

Some more here:
New York Times
(Minus the best bits. In context, mind. Well, in an establishment lackey sort of context. Well heeled too, but faithful and no-doubt patriotic. Which is important. Especially to us foreigners.)