MeatyREADS

Fair Use

June 17, 2008 – 11:07 pm by BH

Apparently the Associated Press (AP) has no interest in sharing its content online. AP went after the Drudge Retort this past weekend because of some user generated comments and articles that linked to and quoted from AP stories. AP just released a new policy that bans pretty much any use of their content, unless you are willing to pay a fee per excerpt. The pricing system is stupid. I am not a lawyer but even I can read through the copyright law and I can’t see how a quote violates fair use. BetaNews has lots more. Michael Arrington responded by vowing to block AP from his site forever. Over at BuzzMachine, Jeff Jarvis, in an eloquently titled post, takes a different approach and reproduces an entire AP article online and encourages others to do likewise in protest. I already feel guilty for linking to an AP story the other day and will probably follow Arrington’s lead and not link to their articles any more. The AP has succeeded in making the NYT look like they understand the internet!