“Patrol every site,”
Nope, just sites they want to shut down.
LATimes allows DU to excerpt or post full articles, but not FR.
Look back in time and see what Stalin did. These are Stalinist tactics.
Actually, they are Adam Smith tactics, too. The LA Times has every right to allow their work to be used by some and not others, and Jim has every right to not use the AP work. (BTW, when I ran newspapers, they were not AP members, nor did we follow AP style...and that split infinitive was intentional! :-)
You have every right to start your own chain of cooperating news-gathering organizations, allowing you to report on the news without having to pay the AP for their work.
In fact, bloggers should be rejoicing...after all, we've heard for years now how some dude sitting in his pajamas in Wichita can gather information on the very latest happenings in Waziristan as well as a news organization of primary reporters...so here's the chance to prove it!
(My suspicion is that bloggers and FReepers will soon discover that they excel at commentary, criticism, and fact-checking, but not at primary reporting.)