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Author Topic: Copyright Wars - Blogs vs AP and Reuters  (Read 9496 times)

Offline zorgon

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Copyright Wars - Blogs vs AP and Reuters
« on: June 17, 2012, 03:31:09 pm »
Copyright Wars - Blogs vs AP and Reuters

Time Line 2008

Associated Press Sends DMCA Takedown to Drudge Retort, Backpedals, and Now Seeks to Define Fair Use for Bloggers
Citizen Media Law Project


June 16th, 2008 by David Ardia

Quote
Last week, the Associated Press ("AP") sent a takedown request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Rogers Cadenhead, the founder of Drudge Retort, a liberal alternative to (and parody of) the well-known Drudge Report, demanding that he remove six user-submitted blog entries and one user comment on the site that contained quotations from AP articles. Today, the New York Times reported that AP was reconsidering its request while it creates a set of guidelines for bloggers and websites that excerpt AP material.

Associated Press Sends DMCA Takedown to Drudge Retort, Backpedals
Citizen Media Law Project


The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs


Quote
It doesn't appear, however, that AP is continuing to pursue its "hot news" claim against Drudge Retort, and for good reason. This little known legal doctrine, which saw its genesis in 1918 in International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215 (1918), seems to have fallen out of favor because the 1976 Copyright Act preempts all legal and equitable rights that are equivalent to the exclusive rights offered by federal copyright law. As a result, in National Basketball Ass'n v. Motorola, 105 F.3d 841, 844 (1997), one of the few cases to address a "hot news" claim, the Second Circuit set an exceptionally high standard for such claims to be viable, requiring, among other things, that the information be time-sensitive; the defendant be in direct competition with the plaintiff; and the continued publishing of the "hot news" would so reduce the plaintiff's incentive to produce the product or service that its existence or quality would be substantially threatened.

Accordingly, to succeed with a "hot news" misappropriation claim, AP would have to prove not only that Drudge Retort is a direct competitor to AP, but also that its headlines and text were time-sensitive and Retort's use of this content would so harm the 1,500 member news cooperative that the continued publication would threaten AP's existence.

Perhaps because AP recognizes that its legal claims against Drudge Retort and its users are weak or because it has realized that its "heavy handed" approach might be counterproductive, it announced that it would rethink its policies toward bloggers and come up with a set of guidelines for others to use its articles.

Associated Press Sends DMCA Takedown to Drudge Retort, Backpedals
Citizen Media Law Project


Digital Millennium Copyright Act


Now bear in mind that this was 2008!

The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs

Quote
By SAUL HANSELL
Published: June 16, 2008

The Associated Press, one of the nation’s largest news organizations, said that it will, for the first time, 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.

The A.P.’s effort to impose some guidelines on the free-wheeling blogosphere, where extensive quoting and even copying of entire news articles is common, may offer a prominent definition of the important but vague doctrine of “fair use,” which holds that copyright owners cannot ban others from using small bits of their works under some circumstances. For example, a book reviewer is allowed to quote passages from the work without permission from the publisher.

Fair use has become an essential concept to many bloggers, who often quote portions of articles before discussing them. The A.P., a cooperative owned by 1,500 daily newspapers, including The New York Times, provides written articles and broadcast material to thousands of news organizations and Web sites that pay to use them.

Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to remove seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words.

The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs

“We are not trying to sue bloggers,” Mr. Kennedy [of Associated Press] said. “That would be the rough equivalent of suing grandma and the kids for stealing music. That is not what we are trying to do.”

Rebuttals and Reactions

The A.P., Hot News and Hotheaded Blogs
By SAUL HANSELL - June 16, 2008


Quote
There was a lot of anger in the blogosphere last week over The Associated Press’s assertion that some blogs were infringing its copyright by publishing excerpts of its articles. When I finally reached Jim Kennedy, an Associated Press vice president, he told me that the news agency now feels its demand was heavy-handed and was rethinking its policies.

The A.P., Hot News and Hotheaded Blogs

Blogrunner: Reactions From Around the Web

Washington Post reaction..
Here's Our New Policy On A.P. stories: They're Banned

Michael Arrington
TechCrunch.com
Monday, June 16, 2008; 7:09 AM


Quote
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...

...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.

...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, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet. 

Washington Post - Ban AP
« Last Edit: June 17, 2012, 04:59:41 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Copyright Wars - Blogs vs AP and Reuters
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2012, 03:42:49 pm »
Time Line 2009

Well it seems they came up with an answer
Associated Press 'got tough' with bloggers/forums/websites for quoting their content
VERY tough

AP Charges $12.50 To Quote 5 Words
Should fair use come into play?


Quote
The AP is known for having some fairly unconventional tactics toward the use of their content online. Sure, a company should be concerned with how their content is being used online… but how far is too far?

Do you agree with the AP’s new strategy? Tell us.

A new tactic, that the AP is currently employing, is one that will surely rub some people the wrong way. The AP is now charging individuals if they quote 5 words or more from any article. For those of you wondering, 5 words will set you back $12.50… that’s an outlandish $2.50 per word! (You can see the pricing details below for each group: profit, educational and non profit.)

AP Charges $12.50 To Quote 5 Words

Well that is pretty straight forward. Naturally that went viral

    5-25 words = $12.50
    26-50 words = $17.50
    51-100 words = $25.00
    101-250 words = $50.00
    251 words and up = $100.00

Quote 5 Words From the Associated Press? That'll Be $12.50

Susan Gunelius - Associated Press to Charge Bloggers Fee for Citing as Few as 5 Words
« Last Edit: June 17, 2012, 04:52:39 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Copyright Wars - Blogs vs AP and Reuters
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2012, 03:52:29 pm »
Time Line 2012

Meltwater Response To Associated Press Lawsuit: AP Is Misusing Copyright Law

by Mike Masnick
Fri, Apr 20th 2012


Quote
We were somewhat surprised by the Associated Press' decision to sue news search engine Meltwater, because we couldn't see how the AP -- even with its absurdist interpretation of copyright law -- had any case. Meltwater works with companies to help them track news about themselves. While it's similar to a clipping service, it doesn't actually "clip" the news. Instead, just like Google News or other news search engines, it provides a headline, a snippet and a link to the full story. In other words, if the AP's argument gains traction, the AP may have effectively outlawed search engines. That's ridiculous. Among the AP's silly claims in the lawsuit (and there are many), is one that says because users can cut and paste AP stories from their original websites and "save" them in a Meltwater archive, Meltwater is guilty of violating copyright law. Under that argument, so is any email program or word processing program.

Either way, Meltwater has hit back with a response (embedded below) that pushes back on all of these points, explains pretty clearly how it doesn't actually infringe... and also claims that the AP's arguments amount to "copyright misuse":

Meltwater Response To Associated Press Lawsuit
« Last Edit: June 17, 2012, 05:00:14 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Copyright Wars - Blogs vs AP and Reuters
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2012, 03:58:07 pm »
At the moment that is all I have until I find the current policy from Associated Press.

Okay found this...

AP sets up a toll booth for bloggers citing its stories
By Tim Conneally Published 4 years ago


This website posted the following Associated Press usage page



Quote
Where the group had previously invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and sent cease-and-desist orders to at least one blogger, seeking the removal of excerpted content (in some cases as few as 17 words in length), now the press service has attached an "Excerpt for Web Use" charge for passages as short as five words in length.

AP sets up a toll booth for bloggers

HOWEVER if you go to that link today... you will get

Content Not Available

Sorry, but that content is not available at this time. Please try again later.


So how can they sue anyone if they don't have any clearly posted policy?
« Last Edit: June 17, 2012, 06:02:19 pm by zorgon »

Offline zorgon

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Re: Copyright Wars - Blogs vs AP and Reuters
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2012, 06:02:39 pm »
Light at the End of the Tunnel

Well it seems that all the fuss is having an effect. A little while ago while I was search Reuters use policy I found that Reuters is actually encouraging use and have developed a new FREE service that I will detail below.

 


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