The AP doesn’t like Bloggers
Apparently, the Associated Press (AP) has yet to catch on that the blogosphere is hot. Or rather, maybe they have, and that’s why they are in the process of filing claims of copyright infringement against several blogs and bloggers including the Drudge Retort, against which the AP has filed 7 DMCA takedown claims. As Susan Gunelius reports at Marketing Blurb:
“Bloggers from the well-known Drudge Retort blog and social community are looking at ‘fair use’ legal battles for using the Associated Press articles as sources.”
If the AP has their way, what I just did up there ↑ would constitute as a copyright violation. Most bloggers, at least in my experience, whether blogging professionally or personally, are pretty good about linking back to sources, especially news sources. For most normal cases (with the exception of content scrapers), providing an appropriate citation, reference, footnote, link with attribution to the originator of the quoted information — something — is enough and is frequently done in print.
Among the responses to the AP’s new stance, is Tech Crunch, which just this morning announced in an article by Michael Arrington:
“So here’s our new policy on A.P. stories: they don’t exist. We don’t see them, we don’t quote them, we don’t link to them. They’re banned until they abandon this new strategy… .”
(Source: The Washington Post)
Why is this relevant to work-at-home professionals? Many work-at-home professionals are freelance writers, either writing articles for Web content or blogging professionally, which means that you too (or the company you write for) could be under the AP’s threat.
With blogging and social media becoming the ways that many gather information, the AP’s attempt to weigh a heavy hand against bloggers can only serve to backfire. After all, there are other news agencies that writers, reporters and bloggers can go to for information and without the risk of penalization, especially when they are correctly attributing the information to the proper source. In fact, Jonathan Baily at plagiarismtoday.com recently posted about Voxant Newsroom, a news source that may provide a viable alternative for those seeking quality content. Other more established alternatives of course include Reuters, Agence France Presse (France), the Press Association (the UK’s national news agency) and the Canadian Press.
As Gunelius states in her report, the AP should “[l]everage the power of blogging and social media to bring [their] brand, business or product to the next level. Work with new media outlets to grow [their] business and positive PR rather than trying to squash it with heavy-handed threats.” The question is, if they are successful, whether they will go after other online and printed media (including digital editions) next.
For those who want to go on-record as petitioning the AP’s tacticts, you can also sign this petition:
Um, can I just say…that is crazy! What are they afraid of? This makes no sense to me. ~Karen
June 19th, 2008 at 6:19 pm