Bloggers, Ban The Associated Press!
By Wyatt Earp | June 16, 2008
Remember the Associated Press? They are the “old media” stuffed shirts that threatened Snapped Shot with a lawsuit for publishing their photos without “a valid license.”
Well, the AP is at it again, and this time they are declaring war on the entire blogosphere. That’s right; everyone from Little Green Footballs to The Temerity of High Maintenance are potential targets for the AP’s Goon Squads.
Michael Arrington from TechCrunch explains this idiocy:
They do not want people quoting their stories, despite the fact that such activity very clearly falls within the fair use exception to copyright law. They claim that the activity is an infringement.
A.P. vice president Jim Kennedy says they will issue guidelines telling bloggers what is acceptable and what isn’t, over and above what the law says is acceptable. They will “attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.’s copyright.”
Those that disregard the guidelines risk being sued by the A.P., despite the fact that such use may fall under the concept of fair use.
Oh, so the AP is going to tell us unintelligent, inbred, backwoods bloggers what is acceptable and what is not? I don’t think so. Look, censorship begins with “guidelines” like these, and the next thing you know, free speech as we know it will cease to exist. The last time I looked, we weren’t spelling America with a “k.”
TechChrunch’s solution? They are banning the Associated Press – their articles, photos, and references. I agree with their new policy, and I am going to follow suit. Until the AP drops this lunacy, the AP is banned here at SYLG, starting today.
By the way, the Boycott AP logo can be found HERE.
Topics: People I Hate | 7 Comments »
June 17th, 2008 at 4:13 am
Wyatt, I’m beginning to see what AP’s real problem is. It’s problem is that the peons are starting to use their brains and are they afraid that the peon’s are seeing through the crap, lies and falsehoods that they have been putting out as the truth for the last few years, and instead of cleaning up their act, they’re going to try and revoke the bloggers rights to the first amendment. Hopefully they’ll end up with a lot of egg on their face by the time this is over. Hhhhmmmm, omelots!!!! Excuse me, I’d just had a Homer moment.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:11 am
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June 17th, 2008 at 7:29 am
You would think al-AP have better things to do with their time.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Ditto leoni2. They don’t like the bias in their coverage being put under the proverbial microscope, so they figure they’ll use bully tactics and high priced lawyers to shut people up.
How liberal of them!
June 17th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I was waiting for this to come up. Screw the A.P. As a member of the CITIZEN MEDIA I reject any of their attempts to control my content. I’ll print what I damn well like.
(CITIZEN MEDIA…Catchy huh?)
June 17th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Leoni2 – They can try and bully us all they want, but if enough bloggers join the ban, it’ll get their attention. It won’t be easy, because they are seemingly everywhere, but it can be done.
Adniral – Apparently not. If they honed their craft with their free time, they wouldn’t be a laughing stock right now.
Pam – Exactly. And they are the first people to cry “First Amendment” when someone questions them!
Captain – Agreed. Citizen Media. Heh.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
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