AP Continues Its Hardline Anti-Linking Stance
You'll recall our earlier post about the AP's DMCA takedown notices against the Drudge Retort, over excerpts that most would consider "fair use," but that AP felt were infringing on copyright. AP has back off - some - but now wants to create its own guidelines for blog posting of excerpts.
On Saturday, The A.P. retreated. Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P., said in an interview that the news organization had decided that its letter to the Drudge Retort was “heavy-handed” and that The A.P. was going to rethink its policies toward bloggers.
But Rogers Cadenhead, the owner of the Drudge Retort and several other Web sites, said the issue goes far beyond one site. “There are millions of people sharing links to news articles on blogs, message boards and sites like Digg. If The A.P. has concerns that go all the way down to one or two sentences of quoting, they need to tell people what they think is legal and where the boundaries are.”
However, do we want AP defining "fair use" on its own? It's always had a rather loose definition, but most have agreed that a few sentence or paragraphs is just fine, as long as appropriate linking is done.
And since HotHardware, as do many other sites, frequently clips small snippets of stories and posts them - with appropriate links - what do you readers think? TechCrunch has already placed a ban on AP stories; should we do so as well? After all, AP stories appear on thousands of sites, all labeled with a small AP logo usually. Should we say, "Hello, Reuters?"
On Saturday, The A.P. retreated. Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P., said in an interview that the news organization had decided that its letter to the Drudge Retort was “heavy-handed” and that The A.P. was going to rethink its policies toward bloggers.
But Rogers Cadenhead, the owner of the Drudge Retort and several other Web sites, said the issue goes far beyond one site. “There are millions of people sharing links to news articles on blogs, message boards and sites like Digg. If The A.P. has concerns that go all the way down to one or two sentences of quoting, they need to tell people what they think is legal and where the boundaries are.”
However, do we want AP defining "fair use" on its own? It's always had a rather loose definition, but most have agreed that a few sentence or paragraphs is just fine, as long as appropriate linking is done.
And since HotHardware, as do many other sites, frequently clips small snippets of stories and posts them - with appropriate links - what do you readers think? TechCrunch has already placed a ban on AP stories; should we do so as well? After all, AP stories appear on thousands of sites, all labeled with a small AP logo usually. Should we say, "Hello, Reuters?"
