Associated Press-ing Bloggers

-By Warner Todd Huston

I haven’t written anything about this one yet because, frankly, I don’t care what the AP thinks they are going to charge for using snippets of their stories. I will NOT abide by this nonsense of 5 words or $12.50 a word after no matter how many “rules” they claim to have written. I will continue using parts of their stories in my criticism no matter what they say.

Here’s the thing, if we abide by the AP’s desire to severely limit our usage of snippets of their reports they will have effectively eliminated any criticism of them because no one will be able to have enough of their reports reproduced to make sensible criticism.

Of course, I’d say that it is beyond question that a blogger should not reproduce an entire AP report in criticism of that report. (I have to admit that once in a great while I have done that. But rarely do I do so.) But, what ever the case, bloggers usually operate under the “Fair use laws” when using other’s work for criticism.

Our friend Jenn Sierra over at Fort Hard Knox has some really good information on what this “Fir Use” deal is. If you are interested in the legal ins and outs, take a look at the FHK post.

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston