She Wants Me to Come, But I'm Never Going There

Allow me to quote a piece by the AP in its entirety:

Article:	AP NewsAlert	Need Assistance? Click "Chat Now" to chat with a Live Operator.                                           Chat Now No Thanks!
Copyright:	2008 Associated Press
Publication:	Associated Press

Excerpt for Web Use License parts of this article for republishing on your website or intranet. Pricing based on the number of words excerpted.

Excerpts are priced by the word.

words Fees 5-25 $ 12.50 26-50 $ 17.50 51-100 $ 25.00 101-250 $ 50.00 251 and up $ 100.00 words Fees 5-25 $ 7.50 26-50 $ 12.00 51-100 $ 25.00 101-250 $ 50.00 251 and up $ 75.00 To qualify for educational pricing you must be a teacher, administrator or student at an accredited educational institution and certify that you will use this article solely for educational purposes. words Fees 5-25 $ 7.50 26-50 $ 12.00 51-100 $ 25.00 101-250 $ 50.00 251 and up $ 75.00 To qualify for non-profit pricing you must represent a government-qualified non-profit organization and certify that you will use this article solely for non-profit purposes.

This applies to blog comments as well.

The official Whiskey Fire position on paying $12.50 for five words is "bite me."

What pisses me off the most about this is that it gives Jeff Jarvis a plausible excuse to wage Nerd Jihad:

Remember, AP, you declared war on the bloggers. Remember that.

Oh, brother. Blog triumphalism gives me hives. Thanks a lot, AP for making me side with Jeff Jarvis. This, I do not forgive. Feh.

I'm claiming fair use for the thing above, by the way. But I will probably be sued regardless. Admire me for my Heroism and so forth.

Comments

[Jay C.]

Ack, triumphalism. I'm bracing for the onslaught of Ayn Rand quotations that I'll have to pretend to agree with.

[rageahol]

the only words you have to know are "fair use"

[John Hoffman]

When I think of Ayn Rand and libertarians, I am reminded of the classic line, "A libertarian is a Republican with a bong."

[herr doktor bimler]

I hope that John Hoffman paid for permission to use that quote.

[Molly Ivors]

John,
As I noted the other day, they are also quite keen on abortions. But I think you've summed it up, pretty much.

[DrDick]

"The official Whiskey Fire position on paying $12.50 for five words is "bite me.""

Hmmm. Seems ya'll are being unduly civil about this today. My response is "Fuck you with the dick of a psychotic syphilitic elephant."

[actor212]

Wouldn't it just be simpler to put "Copied Right 2008 by Thers" after every AP quote you pull?

[Jemand von Niemand]

So, if you quote a person, "referencing an AP story", you can use four words "without having to pay"?

Are the total of quoted words in a single posting the yardstick -- or can you "use an unlimited number" of four-word quotes in any piece? Or, is it "whatever AP decides"?

Incidentally -- Um; hey, AP? There are plenty of other news sources to quote, thanks ever so much.

Oh, yes... Who are the AP's Word Gestapo? Who will be "watching the Intertubes", to find out who's "naughty and nice"?

[Bitter Scribe]

I sure hope the AP isn't making any elaborate plans on how to spend all the money they're going to get from bloggers.

[Rich2506]

So if I do an article for an IMC, does that count or is this just for blogs? After all, the difference between a blog and a "regular" website is partially by form and partially by content. Media Matters is definitely a website as opposed to a blog, firedoglake is a snazzy, souped-up blog with lots of extras, but both appear to be considered part of the left blogosphere.

[owlbear1]

AP is handing out nails for the coffin...

[xan]

I wonder if their target isn't Google News? That's a classic fair-use site (headline and lead graf) if ever there was one, but it's sure as hell more than 5 words.

And the Google link is to the site that ran it regardless if it's an AP or locally written item. Although (at least back in my day, admittedly several decades ago) anything written in an AP-subscribing paper could be picked up by AP for distribution elsewhere if they chose.

Wonder if they can write an algorithm to cope with THAT little mess?

although I predict the whole subject will go the way of NY Times Select in a very short time, possibly by the end of the week.

[George Johnston]

They seem to charge a bit much for copying and pasting Republican talking points.

[JeffCO]

She Wants Me to Come, But I'm Never Going There

The AP shook me down all night long.

[RepubAnon]

Great moneymaker for AP:

1) have an AP stringer post a quote in the comments section of a bunch of blogs

2) send out bills

---
Unfortunately, there's also
3) Get sued by people claiming "Fair Use" under federal law, losing, and paying attorneys fees.

[Erik]

@Jemand von Niemand: Let's find out!

[SamFromUtah]

What if you just remove all the spaces from the quotes you use? Then it's just one word. AndIfYouCapitalizeEveryWordIt'sEvenKindOfReadable.

[¡El Gato Negro!]

Pipples may want to consider posting this piece on their own blogs as well.

The AP cannot sue all of us, and why should Thers get to have all the fun, eh?

[Warren Terra]

Given their volume of output, how many five word phrases can there be that (1) parse, (2) connect to current events, and (3) haven't been used by the AP?

I mean, "President Of The United States George W. Bush" isn't just a tragic fact, it's also almost certainly worth $12.50 to the AP. They must have used the phrase, and I can't prove I'm not quoting them.

Similarly, in a more cheerful vein, every news source and every political commenter has used the phrase "Barack Obama secured the Democratic nomination" or a phrase very similar to it. I'm sure the AP did, too, and probably before many of them. Copyright violations aplenty!

Those fees will be rolling in.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Somehow, I suspect that AP's decision to pursue this came from one of their Super-Geniuses™ in an upper-management position.

Here let me quote their Top-Sekrit internal memo (keeping it under 5 words!)

...
3. PROFIT!

[Karin]

I think spocko knows a lawyer you can use.

[wtfwjd?]

Don't hide: the snake can see you!

[Jemand von Niemand]

Seems ya'll are being unduly civil about this today. My response is "Fuck you with the dick of a psychotic syphilitic elephant."

Hey; this is a family blog. And that's five words or more. I prefer the three-word version.

...and speaking of diseased elephants with priapism and mental aberrations, Big John Cornyn is otherwise occupied at the moment.

[ZZMike]

Way I see it is, you now owe them about $100 for posting their rules about posting their words.

To "fair use" I would add "fisking".

If Google had any grit (as they don't seem to, given their bending-over to accomodate Chinese censorship), they'd simply drop all the AP stories. Then nobody would read AP.

[ajg]

Wow. If only the federal bench wasn't overrun by "Federalist" society corporatist stooges, then a judge somewhere would laugh the AP out of court. Alas.

P.S. Nice GBV reference.

[Douglas Watts]

Eat me, I'm a twinkie.

Do contractions count full or half?

[VJBinCT]

The next time I get interviewed and it ends up on the AP 'wire', I will have to charge them. BTW, do 'the', 'a', 'and', 'Bush', and other words in the public domain count?