The Associated Press vs. the blogosphere...

There may be major trouble brewing in the blogosphere. If the Associated Press has their way, bloggers will have to purchase a license in order to quote as few as five words from an AP story. As you may or may not know, news blogging relies on the ability to cut and paste from other sources for quoting and reference. That’s just the way it works.

The controversy started at the Drudge Retort, where Rogers Cadenhead (the man behind the Drudge) received seven take down notices under the US’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) from the AP. Cadenhead went ahead and let slip the blogosphere’s worst kept secret:

Linking to news articles with short excerpts is common practice throughout the web, both on individual blogs and on social news sites

Attacking one site means that the AP would have to go after literally thousands of bloggers, both paid and un-paid. Cadenhead believes that all bloggers, though, are protected by fair use standards, that the information that the AP prints fits in those standards.

Since Cadenhead went public with his problem everybody has chimed in and the AP has had to back-track on their stance. They are no longer planning on suing Cadenhead and the other bloggers that were formerly in their sights.

They still don’t have a clear solution, but they’re working on it. Until then, bloggers be extra cautious posting anything that can be traced back to the Associated Press.

Read More at The Register

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See also: Is full-time blogging a health hazard?

And this: The American military and bloggers...