Associated Press Enemy of Blogs and an Informed Public

I always wondered why AP news never had a way to print there stories for personal use. They want money, more than an informed public. AP wants bloggers to summarize the story in their own words, instead of using an actual snippet of the article. This creates a whole new set of problems, including a blogosphere filled with misinterpretations and hearsay. Using direct quotes prevents spinning the actual language used in the article and deviating from the real meaning of the subject matter.

Joseph Weisenthal, at paidContent.org, put it this way:

I interviewed AP CEO Tom Curley last year…he also balked at what some would
consider fair use: "If you want our content, we expect to be paid for it ? this nonsense that you can just take the first paragraph or use the picture small doesn't really fly with us."

Right now, AP is going after the Drudge Retort (not theDrudge Report), a liberal social news site. It’s a small site, and an easy target. Their not suing, but they are asking the site take down stories with snippets of their product.

We’ll keep you posted on where we’ll go from here.