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]

In the name of "defin[ing] clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt" 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. The licensing system exhorts you to snitch on people who publish without paying the blood-money, offering up to $1 million in reward money (they also think that "fair use" -- the right to copy without permission -- means "Contact the owner of the work to be sure you are covered under fair use.").

It gets better! If you pay to quote the AP, but you offend the AP in so doing, the AP "reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time if Publisher or its agents finds Your use of the licensed Content to be offensive and/or damaging to Publisher's reputation."

Over on Making Light, Patrick Nielsen Hayden nails it:

The New York Times, an AP member organization, refers to this as an “attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt.” I suggest it’s better described as yet another attempt by a big media company to replace the established legal and social order with with a system of private law (the very definition of the word “privilege”) in which a few private organizations get to dictate to the rest of society what the rules will be. See also Virgin Media claiming the right to dictate to private citizens in Britain how they’re allowed to configure their home routers, or the new copyright bill being introduced in Canada, under which the international entertainment industry, rather than democratically-accountable representatives of the Canadian people, will get to define what does and doesn’t amount to proscribed “circumvention.” Hey, why have laws? Let’s just ask established businesses what kinds of behaviors they find inconvenient, and then send the police around to shut those behaviors down. Imagine the effort we’ll save.

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.

Welcome to a world in which you won’t own any of your technology or your music or your books, because ensuring that someone makes their profit margins will justify depriving you of the even the most basic, commonsensical rights in your personal, hand-level household goods.

The people pushing for this stuff are not well-meaning, and they are not interested in making life better for artists, writers, or any other kind of individual creators. They are would-be aristocrats who fully intend to return us to a society of orders and classes, and they’re using so-called “intellectual property” law as a tool with which to do it. Whether or not you have ever personally taped a TV show or written a blog post, if you think you’re going to wind up on top in the sort of world these people are working to build, you are out of your mind.

Link

[kevinm13]

I heard Rush’s rant over how much power the AP has and how it is using its leftist views to set the agenda and talking points. Like any liberal institution that portrays itself as being middle-of-the-road, the AP needs to report in a balanced manner or should be shut down by fair competition that finds alternatives for the truth. Fox News Channel has been doing it for years against CNN. We need a real middle-of-the-road (actually preferably conservative) news service that doesn’t add lib talking points into its supposed news coverage.

[geo40xyz]

I have two words for AP!

[Fresh Wind]

I’m actually thinking of two words for them.

Seven letters and an exclamation point, right?

[stevio]

Oh yea. ;^)

[Captain Rhino]

My thoughts, too.

“Fair use” is law, not the at the whim of AP. If I am using the quotation for legitimate critical or academic purposes (including blogging), AP’s got nothing to say about it.

If I’m doing it for commercial gain, of course I should obtain permission from AP.

If AP wants to charge for using its material commercially, that’s just a disincentive to use AP as a source, especially if the information is not unique to AP.

Wonder which genius in finance thought up this scheme.

[steve-b]

I'm actually thinking of two words for them.

If I Had the Copyright on the word ^%$%!
I'd say ^%$%! this job and yourself you dumb ^%$%!
No need for hard work and no need for luck
If I Had the Copyright on the word ^%$%!
--Carla Ulbrich

[snowsislander]

If seriously pursued, this could have a very interesting effect on academia where quotations from sources is considered scholarly behavior --- it could certainly turn into expensive behavior also.

Since much scholarly material isn't of itself profitable, it would be interesting to see how, say, a history book would deal with such demands for paid attributions.

On the other hand, since turnabout is fair play and the AP often quotes its sources, I wonder if they are equally willing to start paying for their quotes --- it could even turn out to be profitable for Senator McCain or Senator Obama since, while scholars might be able to get around the exact quote requirement, it's hard to see how the AP could go without such material. I picked a random AP article, and it had four short quotes from sources.

Multiple $50 per article by the number of articles that the AP turns out each day, and this could prove to be a significant drag on its bottom line.

[Jim Robinson]

Boycott AP!!

[Paladin2]

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

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

[commonguymd]

I stole these 6 words directly from various AP articles.

the backlash here there everywhere huge

sue me.

[Paladin2]

"defin[ing] clear standards (two letter word starting with "a", ending with "s") to how much (two letter word starting with "o", ending with "f") its articles and broadcasts (concatenated with) bloggers and Web sites (concatenated with) can excerpt"

No problem.

[weegee]

If you read a discarded newspaper on the bus, train, or at a restaurant, it’s like you are STEALING that content.

Actually there ARE people who take that view when it comes to used book sales.

[null and void]

I’m actually thinking of two words for them.

You could add "very much" for free...

[weegee]

If you pay to quote the AP, but you offend the AP in so doing, the AP "reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time if Publisher or its agents finds Your use of the licensed Content to be offensive and/or damaging to Publisher's reputation."

AP was in as deep as Dan Ratherbiased was into the forged National Guard memos story.

And reporting on the BIAS of the media in a presidential election WAS bad for their reputation.

They were slow to even acknowledge any controversy about the authenticity of the documents.

And there NEVER was mention of the COLLUSION between the DNC and the media on this "news story"

Anatomy of a Forgery (The American Spectator 9-10-4 Washington Prowler)

More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian.

The oppo researcher claimed the source was "a retired military officer." According to a DNC staffer, the documents were seen by both senior staff members at the DNC, as well as the Kerry campaign.

"More than a couple people heard about the papers," says the DNC staffer. "I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity."

[weegee]

Some other reading on AP abuses...

The Right to Know (Free Republic May 12, 2008 conservatism_IS_compassion)

Obama in a sea of people - creative editing from the folks at AP.(NY Times, Salem News, KPIC 5/18/2008 Larry Rohter)

AP Fires Photographer: Reuters Fires Photographer Over Doctored Photos (WRAL News 8/8/06 WRAL News)

Hajj also worked as a freelancer for The Associated Press from 2003-2005. the AP was reviewing all 193 of his images in its photo archives to verify their authenticity. On Monday, the AP recalled a photo that it had transmitted Sunday night of a worker in Alaska examining an oil pipeline. In that photo, the worker appeared to have four hands, and there were other elements such as a section of pipe that appeared to have a double image. Lyon said the distortions were unintentional and resulted from careless use by the photographer of a software feature in Photoshop called a "cloning tool."

[weegee]

Does the 5 words INCLUDE the headline words?

[ken21]

so-called “professionals” in the media

copy at will from the internet.

[ConservativeMind]

Boy, I can’t wait to see the threads you will be posting now!

[abb]

The question is this: Is the Associated Press really this stupid? Apparently so.

Recall we wondered what in God’s name was Sam (The Gravedancer) Zell thinking when he plunked down millions (plus a lot of borrowed cash) to buy the Tribune Company. Betcha he wishes he’d never heard of the Chandler family now.

Some people can’t stand prosperity it seems.

[Gaffer]

“AP AP AP AP AP AP AP AP AP AP AYYPEEEE HAY PEEEE.....AP SUX”