Posted on 06/17/2008 1:23:48 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
This is our Boston tea Party.
The Associated Press wants to levy a $12.50 and up license fee (aka extortion fee) on any blogger who quotes more than 4 words from one of their propaganda pieces. This is an outrageous attempt to control the blogosphere and free speech itself. To hell with their license fee and to hell with the AP. Any AP article that gets posted to FR will be jettisoned into the harbor posthaste.
Please do not post any AP material to FR excerpted or not.
Especially the critical review part.
Why does the AP get to decide that four words is a portion?
Who decides how much a portion is?
BTW— one doesn’t PRODUCE news stories...one REPORTS THE NEWS.
An attaboy to Jim. Pay no tribute to tyrants.
No, but I do expect to get paid for my work. Do you work for free or do you expect to get paid for it? It would appear here that people want the product AP produces for free and are busy whining because they have to pay for someones work.
You sound a little snarky there. If you were, then this appiles to you....unless YOU come up with the dough for FR to fight it, I wouldn't be so snarky. If you weren't being snarky, then I apologize for my snarky.
What if AP charges or sues us, but ignore News Writers they respect?
Could we get them on not enforcing their brand? If a company doesn't defend their brand, they lose the right to exclusivity. Like band-aid. M&M, big Mac etc. If AP's being selective, we might have a case.
Who decides how much a portion is?
I actually had a copyright complaint over an article I wrote over 10 years ago. The "fair use" limit is 200 words or one printed page.
And how does that news get reported? Does it just magically appear out of thin air, or do people actually do work to put the story together?
AP=A$$holes Personified.
Balled Grandpas are scarce these days. They’re mostly just bald.
That's the whole point. AP does not want any criticism of their "news reporting," not even of the stringers (propagandists) they rely on in critical areas.
They have already BEEN paid. You think they’d be writing articles without being paid by someone in the 1st place? AP outsources to many many many papers. Do you actually think the “reporter” gets paid by each and every one of them?
Now you really are being funny. How old are you?
Mega-Dittoes JimRob.
I plan to boycott anything AP.
Thing is, no one 'has' to pay for work they refuse to hire.
Ten-4
I’d suggest sending a notarized certified return receipt letter to the Media Bloggers Association in New Rochelle, NY stating specifically they do NOT represent your interests, that FreeRepublic LLC and all of it’s subsidiaries are to be opted out of any agreement with the AP, etc etc.
Then post the letter publicly, so that other blogs, forums, websites etc can send in the same letter to the Media Bloggers Association as to completely defang the Media Bloggers Association before the AP coops and subjugates the whores at the Media Bloggers Association for propaganda, agitation and legal filings.
Just say “No!” to propaganda.
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