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Business

AP makes like Hindi fim villian

By: Runa :+: Under: Business, Economics, Media Watch, Public Service Announcement
On: ⋅ June 20, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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For those of our UD readers who have been here some time you know ( from our FAQ) :

Q. Where do you guys get your material from?

A. Al Gore created this tool called the Internet. No seriously, we just go through the daily news clippings, blogs, tabloids, editorials. You name it. We blog it.

A big thumbs down to AP

original artwork of Uberdesi.com. Free (unlike AP) for use to anyone and everyone in exchange for linklove

Thats right , dear readers. For your viewing pleasure, your intrepid UD bloggers troll through so much rubbish at great personal cost just to ensure that you don’t have to. Our relationship has been growing steadily and just when things are going swimmingly - you guessed it. The inevitable kabab mein haddi (literally : bone in the meat- in other words 3rd wheel) in our progressing relationship - and the villain is none other than AP news!

Yes, that stodgy stalwart of news services has struck a new, low blow to bloggers like us everywhere.

The press service has attached an “Excerpt for Web Use” charge for passages as short as five words in length. (link to article at Betanews)

The fees charged start at $ 12.50 for as few as 5 words excerpted. The article linked to above has an interesting discussion on the copyright and other implications. For example , it says :

Should “boilerplate” words count towards the fee? For example, a phrase common among news stories is “[Name] had this to say:” for prefacing a published statement or quote. If the AP runs a story with this phrase, will it therefore cost anyone else $12.50 to use this 10 cent expression? (link)

(Note: If Betanews applied the same charges as AP intends to , that preceding paragraph would have cost us $ 25!)

This tamasha began when AP news sent take down orders to the liberal website “The Drudge Retort” for as many as seven posts - including one comment on a post !- that it claims violated its copyright by quoting material from AP news. (link) . When faced with criticism for this action, over the weekend AP geniuses figured out that they should put a structured policy in place. In reality, as most blogs link back to the source of the quote - in effect AP is charging bloggers to drive traffic to their sites or sites that quoted them!

Well, dear readers, it will take more than the villains at AP to come between us. However , since none of us here is making money out of blogging, until further notice we will NOT be quoting from AP articles .So if you see this :

” “

in one of our posts : Its not you , its us !

We all strongly believe in the sanctity of copyright. However, we also believe that this move from AP smacks of greed and is extremely shortsighted.

Our love for you is as strong as ever and no Prem Chopra -type villain is ever going to come between us!

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