They are truly nuts. FR limits AP content to a headline, link and a few sentences. If interested in the story, I will click on a link to the article that will bring it up along with ads and links to their other articles. Forbidding even a headline and a link will ensure their content is not read at all. Throw the baby out with the bathwater, will ya.
The answer here locally has been to totally ignore them and discourage posting as little of their material as can be found elsewhere. Many times I can find the same material reported better in one of their rival’s papers anyway.
I still have one of their reporters hit my site daily looking for material (I know what his IP is). Same for the newsroom server for the very guys who say I’m “unfair competition”. I find that the very worst thing I can do is ignore them...they are by nature attention whores, and it bites deep when nobody pays them any mind.
At some point there needs to be a complete boycott of AP to let them know the ‘net can push back.