Associated Press Billing Bloggers for Quotes

The Associated Press has started billing bloggers for quoting excerpts of its news stories on blogs. The AP is demanding $2.50 a word, even for excerpts, which appear to clearly fall within the "fair use" rules. As a consequence, word is going out through the blogosphere to boycott AP stories. For our own protection, it's a good idea.

The idiotic AP doesn't seem to realize that by excerpting their news stories and supplying a link to the news site, bloggers are doing them a favor. Such activity merely directs much more attention and readers to the AP story and the AP approved news site. In the process, the news site's sponsors get a lot more bang for their advertising dollar. How is that a bad thing??

I am not going to go back through hundreds of posts to find previously excerpted AP material. However, I do not plan on excerpting any in the future.

Join the boycott of the Associated Press.