If the AP doesn’t want bloggers quoting their stories, why make RSS feeds available?
And insofar as “telling bloggers what is acceptable”… nuh-uh, the AP doesn’t get to define their own set of copyright laws and as any first year law student will tell them, attempting to define acceptable use policy would be the equivalent of a terms-of-service agreement that would require acceptance in order to be enforceable. In other words, I can create policy terms at the drop of a hat but in order for them to have the force of law it would be incumbent upon the other party – in this case a specific blogger – to explicitly accept said terms.
This is why I don’t include AP links anymore unless it can’t be avoided. I’ll search down a Reuters link to the same story just to include their version instead of sending the traffic to AP. There is actually an online petition effort call the UnAssociated Press, spread the word.
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.”