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 ![]()
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 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.
words Fees 5-25 $ 7.50 26-50 $ 12.00 51-100 $ 25.00 101-250 $ 50.00 251 and up $ 75.00
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.




Ack, triumphalism. I'm bracing for the onslaught of Ayn Rand quotations that I'll have to pretend to agree with.
Posted by: Jay C. | June 16, 2008 at 02:53 PM
the only words you have to know are "fair use"
Posted by: rageahol | June 16, 2008 at 03:59 PM
When I think of Ayn Rand and libertarians, I am reminded of the classic line, "A libertarian is a Republican with a bong."
Posted by: John Hoffman | June 16, 2008 at 04:53 PM
I hope that John Hoffman paid for permission to use that quote.
Posted by: herr doktor bimler | June 16, 2008 at 05:31 PM
John,
As I noted the other day, they are also quite keen on abortions. But I think you've summed it up, pretty much.
Posted by: Molly Ivors | June 16, 2008 at 07:24 PM
"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."
Posted by: DrDick | June 16, 2008 at 07:33 PM
Wouldn't it just be simpler to put "Copied Right 2008 by Thers" after every AP quote you pull?
Posted by: actor212 | June 16, 2008 at 08:43 PM
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"?
Posted by: Jemand von Niemand | June 16, 2008 at 08:48 PM
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.
Posted by: Bitter Scribe | June 16, 2008 at 09:50 PM
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.
Posted by: Rich2506 | June 16, 2008 at 10:50 PM
AP is handing out nails for the coffin...
Posted by: owlbear1 | June 16, 2008 at 11:35 PM
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.
Posted by: xan | June 16, 2008 at 11:39 PM
They seem to charge a bit much for copying and pasting Republican talking points.
Posted by: George Johnston | June 16, 2008 at 11:40 PM
She Wants Me to Come, But I'm Never Going There
The AP shook me down all night long.
Posted by: JeffCO | June 16, 2008 at 11:42 PM
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.
Posted by: RepubAnon | June 16, 2008 at 11:53 PM
@Jemand von Niemand: Let's find out!
Posted by: Erik | June 17, 2008 at 01:00 AM
What if you just remove all the spaces from the quotes you use? Then it's just one word. AndIfYouCapitalizeEveryWordIt'sEvenKindOfReadable.
Posted by: SamFromUtah | June 17, 2008 at 01:38 AM
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?
Posted by: ¡El Gato Negro! | June 17, 2008 at 02:08 AM
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.
Posted by: Warren Terra | June 17, 2008 at 05:23 AM
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!)
Posted by: Snarki, child of Loki | June 17, 2008 at 07:41 AM
I think spocko knows a lawyer you can use.
Posted by: Karin | June 17, 2008 at 08:31 AM
Don't hide: the snake can see you!
Posted by: wtfwjd? | June 17, 2008 at 09:29 AM
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.
Posted by: Jemand von Niemand | June 17, 2008 at 09:59 AM
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.
Posted by: ZZMike | June 17, 2008 at 03:52 PM
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.
Posted by: ajg | June 17, 2008 at 06:05 PM
Eat me, I'm a twinkie.
Do contractions count full or half?
Posted by: Douglas Watts | June 17, 2008 at 08:12 PM
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?
Posted by: VJBinCT | June 17, 2008 at 09:39 PM