Breaking: The Associated Press declares itself irrelevant, insists people look elsewhere for useful information. In a move that is almost comically ignorant, the Associated Press has declared war on quotation. Rather than live by the accepted practices of fair use or fair dealing, they are insisting that any quotation of their copyright material be licensed on a sliding scale. They want $12.50 for quotations of 5-25 words and it goes up from there. As if that weren't galling enough, the cock-noggins are also reserving the right to pull said license if they don't like what you do with the quotation that you're renting.
Here's a 'heads up' to the braintrust at the AP, if I come across an article, story, information or image that interests me and it comes with an AP byline, I'll take that as a cue to look elsewhere for a similar story, article or image. You can take your misguided notions of your own value and roll them into a tubular shape, bend even deeper at the waist and see if you can wedge them in beside your own heads in the depths of your capacious arses.
It is time to fight back. Since these arrogant corporate behemoths are so sure of their own privilege and power they need to be reminded that those privileges and powers derive from we the public. When we stop using the services you so begrudgingly offer, you will fall upon the relic heap of history where you belong. Not only will I not pay fifty cents a word for a snippet of an article, I won't make any use of your products. I won't quote you, I won't link to you, I won't purchase your publications and I will do all in my power to encourage others to avoid your predatory and greed powered services. In short, fuck you AP, you are dead to me.
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2 comments:
Good luck to AP--I'll go on quoting them as I please, and if they don't like it they can come here and do something about it. We should all do a collective, huge paste-up and tell them to get stuffed.
It's a somewhat puzzling move on their part. Perhaps it was part of an effort to justify their charges to the stakeholders... who knows? Should be interesting to see where it goes from here and how other news agencies and content providers weigh in on the matter.
However, as I said yesterday, putting a bit of stick about might not be an altogether bad thing if it inhibits some of the more notorious "cut-n-paste" artists out there from just lazily ripping off content with impunity.
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