The Associated Press has unveiled a new scheme under which bloggers may apply for a license to quote liberally from AP reports at prices ranging from $12.50 for as little as 5 words quoted, up to $100.00 for 251 words or more.
While Patrick from Making Light scoffs, “welcome to a world in which you won™t be able to effectively criticize the press, because you™ll be required to pay to quote as few as five words from what they publish,” surely he’s aware we already live in a world where more than one major media organization routinely paraphrases items from the AP or other papers without any attribution. Apparently, the rights of some copyright holders are deemed more precious than others.
Time will tell if other wire services follow suit, but despite the challenges this will present to CSTB, I’m confident the sports blogosphere’s leading lights will soldier on. However, if someone figures out a way to collect royalties or licensing fees for already-in-circulation pictures of Jessica Alba, that would certainly be a doomsday scenario for our more popular colleagues.
so is the fee for posting that image $17.50 or $25.00? are numbers counted as words?
While I’m all against plagiarism, this is just over the top. Failure to cite properly should result in a fine, but just using words? That’s ridiculous.
And to kt, I’m assuming it’d be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200.00+ [I see a luxury tax on Jessica Alba pictures]…A picture is worth 1000 words and I wouldn’t think the AP would see it any differently…
Ugh.
That the AP seeks compensation for the use of their copywritten content does not strike me as unreasonable all by itself. They’re paying reporters and newspapers are paying the AP. The rates in question, however, are ridiculous,.
I don’t think the AP is up in arms over the lack of credit as much as they are trying to protect the semi-exclusivity of a product they have much invested in. I have no quarrel with that conceptually, but I do believe the way they intend to solve the problem is terribly short sighted.
This is a win for the citizens because they are forced to use citizen reporters, Hence, closing “the media” and making it proprietary. Closed systems in a an open social sharing web is harakiri ! Do you really want news from a source who doesn’t understand the evolution of the web?
People are going to discover news without the bias of “news directors” and advertisers. Real stories from real peeps!!!!
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