Associated Press expects you to pay to license 5-word quotations [barred if damages AP reputation]

Boing Boing ^ | June 17, 2008 | Cory Doctorow

[Mike Fieschko]

I guess the first 4 words are free.

[underground]

At first I thought market evolution was killing off the lamestream media. These days, I’m convinced the MSM is determined to commit suicide as quickly as possible.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

And I Will Lay To Rest My Ghosts
And Cover My Footsteps
And I Will Stand Up Straight And Walk Away
Leaving Them Far Behind

[TLI]

...the Associated Press is now selling "quotation licenses" that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles. The licenses start at $12.50 for quotations of 5-25 words.

BUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

One word.

[stevio]

I guess we’ll have to start talking like Yoda to get around this.

[stevio]

I’m actually thinking of two words for them.

[snowrip]

Good luck collecting, AP. If it were in fact illegal, you would have made a stink about it a very long time ago... but it isn’t, so you didn’t.

I will continue to excerpt the AP as often as I like, and in whatever quantity I deem appropriate. I suspect the rest of the blogosphere will, as well.

[GOPJ]

Welcome to a world in which you won’t be able to effectively criticize the press, because you’ll be required to pay to quote as few as five words from what they publish.

AP's envy is showing and it's not pretty.

[Moose4]

Hell, they can quote two fingers from me for free.

}:-)4

[TomGuy]

This will go to court.

It will be interesting to see how the judiciary decides the ‘fair use’ privilege.

AP may try to charge for 5+ words, but .....

[atomic conspiracy]

I have said for some time that the media-industrial complex (of which AP is at the very heart) is not the free press of the Founding Fathers. It is, rather, an unelected, unaccountable shadow government.

This attempt by AP to create and enforce its own laws is a prime example.

[atomic conspiracy]

I have five words for them:

“AP, you can kiss my....”

AP is not a government, it has no legislative or enforcement power other than the threat that its swinish gestapo of lawyers can find a jury that will buy their claims. This is a monstrous and flagrant abuse of the First Amendment and the legal system.

The real purpose of this effort is not to protect copyright, it is to blunt criticism and review, which have been taking an increasingly heavy toll on media credibility since the internet and new media started to undermine their monopoly on public discourse.

We will not have progress or even freedom in this country until the media-industrial complex is overthrown, and the authentic free press restored to its rightful position.

[DManA]

Interesting business strategy - Boycott us please.

[DManA]

Why stop with print. Charge people if you read the article to your wife at the breakfast table. Also people whose lips move as they read - why should def lip readers not have to pay.

[DManA]

Excellent insight:

it is to blunt criticism and review, which have been taking an increasingly heavy toll on media credibility

Most postings of AP stories are in the "Can you believe they print this junk" vein.

[laotzu]

I guess the first 4 words are free

AP - Washington
Bush is to blame.....(link)

[Mike Fieschko]

Interesting business strategy - Boycott us please.

Comments at the original blog post The Associated Press wants to charge you $12.50 to quote five words from them say that the LA and NY Times both dropped AP's headline ticker in the past 12 months or so, and also, that the AP used to do book reviews but has not done any in the past year or so:

I guess that explains why AP news has disappeared from the NY Times online. There used to be a news "ticker" column with a page that had AP and a page that had Reuters -- now they have only Reuters on their website. I wondered about that.

#17 ::: Ginger ::: (view all by) ::: June 16, 2008, 05:32 PM:

Also what may have happened to the 'AP wire' section on the LA Times site. I noticed it was gone, but didn't know what was going on behind the scenes.

#19 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: June 16, 2008, 05:47 PM:

Xopher -- actually, I did a quick search right after I posted that, and as far as I can tell, the AP used to do book reviews, but they stopped over a year ago. Hmmm...

#40 ::: Evan Goer ::: (view all by) ::: June 16, 2008, 08:36 PM:.

[Rebelbase]

The AP adopts the RIAA business model.

[Miss Didi]

RUSH:...The Associated Press sets the agenda and the narrative, along with the New York Times. The New York Times sets the agenda for network television coverage. The Associated Press, think of it as a massive gazillion-times-larger enterprise than Media Matters for America, which is nothing more than a liberal hatchet job website that exists to take members of the New Media out of context and to besmirch their character and credibility and honor. The Associated Press has no competition. Whatever they write about Iraq, whatever they write about me, whatever they write about domestic oil drilling; gets printed in 4,000 or whatever number of newspapers there are. And American citizens, who may not even like the Drive-By Media that they watch on cable TV, read their local papers, see the little thing, "(AP)", many of their stories not even bylined and it is accepted because nobody really takes on the AP. We just take on "the media" in general. But who feeds the media? Who feeds these people? In large part, they're not reporters anymore.

The AP is just an enlarged fax machine that sends out talking points disguised as news stories. Now, last Wednesday or Thursday, there was one of these stories, and it involved me. And I'm not bringing it up because it involved me. I'm bringing it up because it's just a recent and good example because of what's happened since. (cont.)

How the AP Used Rush to Start Narrative on the Whitey Rumor

[EdReform]

BTTT