Wow, now this is a very interesting fight brewing. It pits the No.2 Blog on the Internet (one that I read fairly regularly for tech scoops) versus the Associated Press.
The A.P. doesn’t get to make it’s own rules around how its content is used, if those rules are stricter than the law allows. So even thought they say they are making these new guidelines in the spirit of cooperation, it’s clear that, like the RIAA and MPAA, they are trying to claw their way to a set of property rights that don’t exist today and that they are not legally entitled to. And like the RIAA and MPAA, this is done to protect a dying business model - paid content.
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.
Good for Techcrunch. Someone needs to show the AP that they can't push bloggers around and not face some sort of repercussions. I hope there is an avalanche of protests against the AP and it eventually damages their reputation. You can't stomp on the little guy without the world watching.
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