Tue. Jun 17, 2008
The Alternate Reality Known As The Associated Press
The astounding arrogance of the Associated Press has managed to wake me from my blogslumber. They are suggesting that bloggers must pay for any quote of their work more than four words long. In other words, you could quote them saying “We’re clueless idiots” for free, but quoting them saying “We are idiots without a clue” would cost you $12.50.
The pricing scale for excerpting AP content begins at $12.50 for 5-25 words and goes as high as $100 for 251 words and up. Nonprofit organizations and educational institutions enjoy a discounted rate.
AP sets up a toll booth for bloggers citing its stories
So, when cancer is cured, and the American Cancer Society wants to quote the glorious news (or rather, more than four words of it), they will get a discounted rate from AP. How nice.
They recently went after Rogers Cadenhead at the Drudge Retort, issuing a cease and desist order over some very small quotes from their stories. Mr. Cadenhead, as bloggers are wont to do, spread the word, “hey, can you believe what these guys are trying to do to me?” (given the issue, that’s a paraphrase, not a direct quote, though I’m sure Rogers would not charge me $12.50 for one).
No, sir, we can’t believe it at all.
Oh, and it gets better. The AP claims that it can revoke the license at any time if it feels you’re saying something negative about the Associated Press: “Publisher 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.”
Now, these are the terms that the AP has had on its site for some time — but they explain why the AP went after the Drudge Retort for quoting less than 100 words. To the AP, that was a violation requiring a $25 license. So, while some believe that those criticizing the AP are overreacting, I’d argue that’s not the case at all. This is not, as suggested, a one-time thing. This is an ongoing pattern of misuse of copyright law by the AP.
Associated Press: Fair Use Limits You To Four Words; Five Words Costs $12.50
So, if you quote a portion their work in order to critique it, one of the legal definitions of “fair use” (see “book review”), they will terminate the “license” that wasn’t legally required to quote it in the first place. Nice racket.
The laws of fair usage of copyrighted material unfortunately do not cover the exact increment of a work that can legally be quoted (and it varies by content-type … how do you “quote” a portion of a photograph for the purposes of education or commentary?), but it seems clear AP is attempting to render and/or negotiate their own unique interpretation of the law.
To quote more than four words from the Beatles, “Because I told you before, oh, you can’t do that.” Some people who have weekly ad revenues in a number that ends with four zeros are willing to challenge you: “Hey AP — that’s 120 words. Have your lawyers call my lawyers.”
As for me, my weekly ad revenue might buy me a beer. So how’s this for “negotiation”? You guys at the Associated Press can continue “publishing” your content on your own web site, praying that people might find it there, and I will, from now on, pretend that you never existed as a news entity worthy of quoting. I, and many many other bloggers, will now never link or quote your content again, one word or one hundred.
Now, let’s check back in five years, and we’ll determine who “won” these negotiations. Because AP is already teetering on the financial brink. But I guarantee that in five years I will still be here, with plenty of other sources to link and quote.
Published 09:42PM, Tue, Jun 17 2008
Category: Copyright Media
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Peanut Gallery
Yes, of all people, Michelle Malkin is on that case: “I have found two recent examples of the AP quoting from this blog without linking to the quoted posts or obtaining my consent for a usage agreement.”
The thing is, as good as it is to point out that what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander, everyone charging for their quotes is not a solution. It’s a worsening of this situation that AP has precipitated.
I’ve gone out of my way to chastise bloggers and forum posters who do wholesale cut and paste of entire articles, because it both violates and diminishes the concept of “fair use.” This tactic by AP is the other side of the same coin; it both violates and diminishes the concept of “fair use.”
Without going into the story, I once consulted with an attorney that gave me advice that I think would work here. He told me to use one of these three choices:
1. Hire him to write a letter explaining why I was not going to comply. This was going to cost a lot of money;
2. Write that same letter myself at no cost, or;
3. Ignore it.
When I asked the attorney what he would do if he was in my shoes, he picked #3. So did I. It was the correct response.
As a side note, he asked if I had a picture of the guy who I was complaining about.
“Why?”
“Because I want to see what an asshole like this looks like.”
Even that is apropos.
I’ve fortunately never received a C & D myself, but after over two decades working in an industry (advertising photography) that bills based on the specific usage of intellectual property, I’d feel pretty qualified to judge the validity of the C & D as well as make a very snarky but legally-bounded first response to it
I’m also lucky enough to have clients who are attorneys, one of whom specializes in IP issues. So I’m pretty much a loaded bear trap waiting for some practitioner of Chilling Effects to get their leg snapped off.
Just the same, I don’t go poking at bears with bigger wallets than mine by violating real copyright laws (as opposed to these faux ones AP is attempting to homebrew).
“Because I want to see what an asshole like this looks like”
I do this in Atlanta traffic all the time. Pull up alongside someone and give them a wide-eyed stare … I tell the wife “I just want a visual reminder of what a dangerous idiot looks like.”
You just aren’t thinking like a lawyer. If you want to quote 20 words, just tell them it’s five quotations, four words each. Done.
It’s amazing how the big dinosaurs bang around a bunch just before they topple over and die. Really all a blogger has to do is seed the blogasphere. Let 100 bloggers see what you’re up to, along with the quote. Then we might end up with about 10,000 or more blogs with the short quoted AP content. That should keep em
busy. :)
Todd: “You just aren’t thinking like a lawyer”
That’s the Compliment of the Week. Thank you.
Walt: “It’s amazing how the big dinosaurs bang around a bunch just before they topple over and die”
You talkin’ ‘bout me, Sparky? Because I’m beginning to feel that way at times.
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Does the AP ever quote copyrighted work? How much have they been paying?